


A favor for a former lover

by manateehugger



Series: Ivan's daughter [1]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-11 11:02:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 64,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manateehugger/pseuds/manateehugger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ivan might have had relations with a woman he didn't know very well some years back and one thing led to another...A/U</p><p>Mention of suicide.</p><p>Also names of organizations/countries/people are fictional and not meant to represent any actual organizations/countries/people of today living or dead or in cryo-stasis</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is unrelated to my other works. Also pardon the grammar, I swear I'll get back to this and fix it up after finals

Hailey flinched as her mother grabbed the comm-goggles off her face.

“Why aren’t you dressed yet. Vorpatril sent the driver to meet us, he will be here in 15 minutes. You know that. Why are you doing this when you know how important this is,” Chel demanded.

“Sorry,” Hailey muttered and got off the bed.

“What are you even,” her mother began and looked into the goggles, “I told you before there’s no need to look into Barrayaran custody law. He isn’t going to try and keep you.”

He does not want you, was the underlying message. Not that Hailey blamed him. She was an offworlder prole as far as he was concerned. He probably already had a wife and some kids. Vorpatril would just be embarrassed of her. He probably wanted to sweep this whole affair and her and her mother under the table with as little fuss as possible. Which was what Chel wanted.

“I set the dress that I picked out for you on a hanger in the closet. It’s the black and lavender one. Go put it on and try to look feminine. The migrant farmer look you so adore is not going to please him,” Chel stated moving off to the bathroom to finish applying her makeup.

Hailey walked over to study the dress which was two sizes too big for her. Unsurprising since her mother always seemed to assume that Hailey was fat. The shoes Chel had picked out for her were high heels. Hailey couldn’t walk in heels. Oh, Hailey supposed she could stumble around in them for a short period of time but if anything happened at the meeting, and Hailey was sure there would be trouble, Vorpatril might not offer them a ride back to their apartment. She had no idea how far his home was from their current apartment and she had no desire to walk several miles in those heels.

Hailey went back to her suitcase and pulled out a white button down shirt, slacks, a black blazer, a black tie and black business shoes, and put those on instead. It wasn’t cold out now but if it got to be at least she would have the jacket. If she’d worn the dress her arms would be exposed.

A polite but firm knock at the door sent her into the hallway to answer it.

“Hailey go get the door,” her mother called as Hailey answered it.

The person on the opposite side of the door was a large man with black hair going grey. He wore a white button down shirt similar to hers which were neatly tucked into pants. The short boots and embroidered sleeveless jacket completed the outfit.

The man smiled down at her, “Good evening, my name is Christos. I’m looking for Madam Mujica and her daughter Hailey.”

Should I ask for identification, Hailey wondered.

“Are you Lord Vorpatril’s driver then,” she asked.

“Technically I work for Lord Ivan Vorpatril’s mother Lady Alys,” the man politely corrected.

Hailey stepped aside, “Would you like to come in for a moment. My mother is busy fixing her makeup. She will be ready shortly”

Let’s just hope he doesn’t kill us, Hailey thought looking the man over. Christos was big and he had the walk about him as if he knew how to handle himself. With the way the jacket flowed around him she thought he must be carrying a stunner but was not fully certain. She opened the door more widely to allow him access to the room. He smiled down at her and entered the room then helped himself to a chair.

“I brought a book just in case,” he held up a data pad and keyed it up, “she can take as long as she needs.”

“Would you care for any refreshments,” Hailey asked, hoping the answer was no.  
They had set up residence here three days ago and had done little shopping. We have filter water and coffee, she imagined offering.

“Thank you, no,” he said.

Hailey nodded and went back to the bedroom where she pulled her balisong out of her baggage. A present from Isa, her mother’s most recent husband. She tucked that into her boot. Not much use against stunners or plasma arcs but she felt a little better.

A few minutes later Chel returned.

“Hailey I hope you’re ready. Damnit Hailey what are you wearing? I told you to put the dress on. Why are you being bratty,” Chel demanded.

Hailey shrugged, “I’m still dressed nicely, what does it matter?”

“Because I asked you to do this one little thing for me and you refused. Stop being so selfish,” Chel scolded.

Hailey shrugged, “I could change, but that would take time and then we would be late. If we’re late you would have to apologize and that would shift the balance of power wouldn’t it?”

Chel fumed silently for a minute, “you can be such a little bitch sometimes. Let’s go.”

Chel walked over to the seated Christos who stood up. He was about to speak when she cut him off.

“Do girls on your planet dress like this,” Chel demanded pointing at Hailey.

Christos blinked and looked over at Hailey, then back at Chel, “It is not totally uncommon,” he began but was again cut off.

“You see, even he thinks it’s weird,” Chel stated triumphantly.  
Hailey looked away, I’m still wearing this and I’m not going to be sorry when we end up walking home tonight because you can’t control that temper, she thought resolutely.

“I didn’t say that,” Christos began.

“No, she needs to hear this," Chel informed Christos before turning back to Hailey, "You need to learn to be a team player instead of thinking about yourself all the time. Are you listening to me?"

Why is Chel speaking in English, Hailey wondered. No, I know the answer, because she’s calculating the public humiliation factor into this.

“We should leave soon, you don’t want to be late,” Hailey noted, pointedly looking at the digital chrono on the wall.

Chel shook her head and looked up at Christos, “just get me to the car before I strangle her.”

Christos raised an eyebrow at this but remained silent on what he saw. Instead he made a gesture, “then ladies, let us away.”

Christos led them down to the street level where a ground car was admirably wedged along the sidewalk between two other cars. Chel did not allow him to help her into the vehicle and Hailey followed her lead.

Christos climbed into the driver’s seat, “if you need to talk to me there’s a commlink on the front of the seat.”

With that he closed the canopy and sealed up the passenger side from the drivers. Hailey stared out the window as they drove through the city. Chel had pulled out her datapad to study. At least the streets they saw looked clean. Perhaps it was like the capital of Giansu, in Xinju province where the streets which tourists were allowed upon were especially clean while the rest of the city was decrepit. Is this a noble outer appearance or does it cut all the way though, Hailey wondered.

Her mother had been the one to take her to the planet Giansu after watching a speech by its Noble Leader, Hyuk Kyul. The man had come to power after a military coup and immediately instituted a police state. It was a backwater planet which tended to be ignored and the people there lived in substandard conditions. Chel had decided this was immoral and had sought to bring its problems back into the limelight so the United Galactic Federation would be forced to do something about it. Through cunning and patience she’d managed to secure an interview with Hyuk Kyul and brought her vid scanner along to catalog the trip and the abysmal conditions of the planet's residents. In the now famous vid she brought Hyuk Kyul to tears with her allegations of his mismanagement of the planet and failure to serve his people. The vid was lauded by a multitude of human rights groups and the UGF for her bravery, her compassion for the suffering of those people, and for her devotion to journalism.

That was one of her biggest successes. But Chel didn't stop there, she made a habit of finding strongmen and traveling into their homes to interview them with no regard for life or limb. If she wanted the story, she got the story. They had lived a year in war torn Djao-wu because she had decided she would cover the ravages of war from the front line. Now Chel was interested in an interview with Emperor Gregor. Only she couldn’t get one with him. Perhaps he’d seen her other interviews and had thought better of it, or perhaps he was simply too busy for an offworlder, Hailey thought.

That was where Lord Ivan Vorpatril came in. Hailey was the unfortunate product of a random coupling between Chel and Ivan fifteen years ago while the young Vorpatril had been passing through Salvada station. Chel had been married to her first husband at that point and they had been trying for a body birth. At the time Enrico, Chel’s first husband was a main leader for the controversial Freedom party and had thought a body birth would mean keeping their potential child close. Not having their child grown in a uterine replicator in a hospital meant not having to worry about some nurse or doctor taking a bribe to kidnap or kill the child on the orders of the People's party, the violent opposition to the Freedom party. Enrico and Chel had not expected it to lead to the birth of another man’s baby when Chel went up to the station to help smuggle out a famed writer who was sentenced to death for his devastating critiques of the current regime. Hailey had heard rumors that the couple had been having trouble conceiving. It had been believed that Chel was infertile when in truth it was Enrico. Of course Hailey had never asked. Especially since Enrico had divorced her mother after Chel gave birth and he had found out the truth. There had been no chance for the couple to work through their differences since Enrico was captured soon after and was tortured and killed by the People's party.

When they pulled into a garage Hailey felt it was too soon and wished they could ride around the city longer. This was going to be painful.

Chel had been the one to contact Vorpatril. After that she’d brought Hailey to a hospital where Hailey had blood drawn, her cheek swabbed and hair taken for paternity testing. A day later Chel had been contacted by a very nervous man who identified himself as Lord Ivan Vorpatril. He had invited them to dinner tonight at his mother’s home.  
Christos opened the door and again offered them a hand out which Chel ignored, brushing past him. Hailey hopped out after her and he led them to an elevator.

Chel scowled as they passed each floor, the clear windows allowing them to see the well light expensively decorated foyers.

“You think this money could be better spent on feeding the poor or building hospitals in rural areas. This is so wasteful,” Chel declared, in Basque.

They reached a high level floor and followed Christos out and through a set of wooden double doors. They entered a beautifully decorated living room backed by wide glass walls which showed a sweeping panorama of the capital. At the far end of the room sat three people, a youngh-ish man who tapped his foot restlessly and two older individuals… his parents? She didn’t know. Hailey hadn’t wanted to look up anything about him or them on the jump ship over. She’d distracted herself with her school studies. The idea of meeting her biological father made her sick to her stomach. Especially after all she’d read about the planet. Where was the rest of his family? Or had he asked his wife not to bring the kids for this circus?

“Lady Alys Vorpatril, Captain Simon Illyan, Lord Ivan; Madame Chel Mujica and Mademoiselle Hailey Mujica,” Christos announced, making Hailey jump before he bowed and exited. Lucky bastard, she thought sourly.

Oddly the older woman of the group approached first. She looked similar to the young-ish man, likely his mother. Hailey had thought the planet was too patriarchal to allow anything but the man to act first… and yet Vorpatril did nothing to stop her. Nor did he look upset by this. No, he followed her lead. Hailey glanced at Chel who was making her own assessments as the three advanced.

Lady Alys was definitely older than Vorpatril but she wasn’t old per se, she moved with a certain elegance, like a dancer.

Lady Alys moved first to Chel and attempted to take Chel’s hands in hers. Chel was never one for such tenderness and switched this move to a firm handshake. Chel stood several inches above the older woman and wore her black power suit with skirt and dark pantyhose with heels, adding to the height difference. Neither the height difference nor the sudden switch in motions seemed to perturb Lady Alys.

“Madame Mujica, may I call you Chel, dear? Welcome to my home. I’m so glad you contacted us,” Lady Alys looked Chel over, “eventually.”

Chel looked Alys over and Hailey had the impression of two lionesses about to fight it out.

“If it pleases you, though I am not staying long enough for it to matter in any case,” Chel informed her firmly.

Just once it would be nice if her mother didn’t have to play alpha dog, Hailey thought.

Lady Alys’s smiled thinned but she said no more and moved on to Hailey. She aborted an attempt to reach out and touch her granddaughter when Hailey stepped backwards and out of reach.

Chel scowled at Hailey, “shake her hand, what is wrong with you? I swear you don’t even know how to act like a real human being tonight,” she said in Basque.

Lady Alys who did not necessarily catch the meaning of the words though she understood the tone. “Hailey,” Lady Alys said as if testing Hailey’s name on her lips, “I imagine this must be very difficult for you now. But I’m glad you’re here.”

Are you? Are you just politely lying to me, Hailey wondered. Manners pushed her to say something else, “Thank you,” she said, pausing to think. I’m glad to be here was a lie. It’s nice to meet you was not true, not with her mother there… “You have a very lovely home,” Hailey finished lamely. At least it wasn't a lie and it was safe ground.

“I… imagine you have already met my son, Lord Ivan Vorpatril,” Lady Alys said with a particular look towards Chel.

Ivan reached out to take Chel’s hand in a handshake, “it’s a pleasure to see you again,” he offered with a smile, as if he meant it.

Chel did not deign to respond though she shook his hand. She merely looked next to Captain Illyan as if she were done speaking to Ivan, he could go now, he was being dismissed without a word.

Ivan looked to his mother who gave him another look Hailey didn’t understand. He released Chel’s hand and moved over to Hailey where he floundered.

“Well… my mother always wanted me to have children,” he offered almost apologetically.

Lady Alys did nothing so obvious as glower at him.

“And my long time friend, Simon Illyan,” she stated.

“The retired chief of Imperial Security,” Chel stated, she did not ask.

Illyan did not verbally reply though he offered her an appraising look when he shook her hand. The look he gave her suggested that he seemed to find her lacking. He did offer Hailey a smile though he said nothing to her either.

“Please, won’t you come sit down,” Lady Alys asked shepherding them towards the chairs at the far end. Several armchairs and a couch were present.

Chel took Haileys elbow and guided her over to the couch. Ivan, Simon and Alys all sat in arm chairs around them.

Lady Alys touched a pin on her vest, “may we offer some apperatifs while we discuss your sudden interest in introducing my son to his daughter?”

Hailey turned to study the wall of window and wondered vaguely how hard it would be to open it. Nobody would really miss her, she thought as she’d thought before. Well, her mother might not get that interview with Gregor, but otherwise, she’d probably be a lot happier alone than dragging along a teenager.

A well dressed middle aged woman came in with a cart of drinks to which Chel refused anything and after some debate in which the woman apologetically acknowledged that they didn’t have any Dr. Fizz, Captain Cola, Shuipi or Kamikaze Juice, Hailey accepted water.

Chel was so focused on her current mission she did not mention that Hailey was probably better off with water since she didn’t really need the extra calories. The others were all wordlessly given drinks, likely whatever they usually had.

“As you may or may not be aware, I am a journalist for Amnesty Watch where I report on human rights violations, civilian based violence during wars and wide wealth disparities in under-privileged communities among other things. Your emperor, Gregor Vorbarra, recently came to my attention when I saw a news vid of his speech on the recent Cetagandan invasion of Frost IV. I would like to interview him but his Public Press office won’t give me the time of day.”

“I’m sure his public press office has seen your interviews with other government leaders,” Illyan stated.

Illyan didn’t directly say it but the tone of his voice conveyed his own views on Chel’s work. Hailey wondered if this night was going to end with someone waving a plasma arc in their faces again. Chel had a reputation for suicidal bravery that was well earned. She had continued grilling that despot Jarl Milosev on Djao-wu despite the firearm inches from her head.  
“I could end you right here bitch!” Milosev had ranted.

“Yes, you could also end poverty and starvation if you took time to allocate resources for transporting foods instead of spending it on expensive trips to the Orb of Unearthly Delights,” Chel had retorted.

Chel was calmest when her opposition was most off balance, Hailey noted at she watched the verbal confrontation in front of her now.

“And that should deter him? Funny, I hadn’t thought him such a coward,” Chel retorted.

Hailey sighed in disgust and dropped her head against the couch back, that was her mother’s favorite word. That was also how Chel often got her way.

“I hardly think –“ Lady Alys began but changed mid sentence, “considering that he is the ruler of three planets it is often difficult enough for him to find time for his own family much less time for specific interviews. It could be months to years before he has even thirty minutes to sit down and talk.”

“And really, how does this relate back to you and I? I can’t make Gregor sit down for an interview with you,” Ivan interjected.

“You can’t or you won’t,” Chel demanded, “I’ve looked up your pedigree and recognized that you’re grandfather was married to an emperor’s younger sister. Don’t pretend you don’t have pull.”

“Did you look this up before or after you decided you wanted an interview with the emperor,” Illyan asked.

“I remembered that the father of our child was Barrayaran and identified him after all other efforts to get my interview failed,” she stated sturdily.

Chel was not going to be shamed in this encounter. Not by these people.

“And you never thought that I might wish to know about the existence of a granddaughter before this,” Lady Alys demanded.

Chel raised an eyebrow, “If I remember it right, when I woke up the morning after, your son left me a note about going off to find his cousin. He left no forwarding number or information and had neglected to wake me for his departure. No, I didn’t think he or anyone else in his family would be interested.”

The doors to the outside couldn’t be that heavy, Hailey thought. If they were locked she was sure she could convince the family to open them for her. She had no desire to sit through this as Chel raked the family through the proverbial coals. She thought it would work out well for everyone else as well. Chel could definitely work the suicide to her advantage and get the Vorpatrils to take her for her interview with the emperor. The Vorpatrils would get rid of their awkward bastard child who had suddenly shown up on their door step.

“Ivan, you idiot,” Lady Alys and Simon Illyan both shouted.

“I was just out trying to find Miles after his insane plans blew up and they were accusing him of building an army. Does anybody remember that I had to travel halfway across the galaxy, by myself because the military ship I was on left without me and was sabotaged! It wasn’t my fault,” Ivan cried.

Hailey winced. That was one of the worst things he could say to Chel who latched on viciously.

“Not your fault? Not your fault? Everything thing you do and fail to do when it’s within your power is your fault! Every decision you make and path you take is your fault. It’s your choice and you have to live with the consequences. You have free will, you’re not some marionette. Don’t pull this bullshit with me. Grow a spine and take some responsibility for once in your miserable life,” Chel declared. She didn’t shout this, she kept a controlled tone on her voice to show she was still in charge of her emotions.

“But, But,” Ivan sputtered.

“And if you’re ashamed of your decisions then you should act to fix them, or go kill yourself,” Chel finished.

“You can’t say that to him,” Hailey hissed in Basque to her mother.

Chel scowled back and responded in English so everyone could understand, “I can say this and I did because I don’t deserve to be treated like this and he can’t continue to act like a bratty coddled child his entire life.”

“Chel, I am so sorry that this happened to you,” Lady Alys stated in a pained voice.

“I’m not asking for your pity. I don’t want child support from you. I’m not here to black mail you. But I am asking that you get me this interview as a sign of respect for all the years I’ve been raising this child alone.”

Well, not alone, Hailey thought considering the three husbands and countless lovers Chel had burned through. Chel was tall and thin with reddish brown hair which all worked well together and made her gorgeous. That and her ball buster attitude somehow caused men to swarm towards her in droves. They threw themselves at her feet. She merely had to walk into a meeting, turn to one and demand, “what have you done for me lately,” to get him jumping through hoops for her.

“I mean, I can try, but,” Ivan began.  
Chel cut him off, “you can do it for me or you can’t. Stop making excuses for yourself.”

Ivan swallowed, “yeah, I can do this for you,” he promised.

“You have an oath for this, don’t you,” Chel demanded unsatisfied.

Now for the finale, Hailey thought watching her mother at work. She wondered if she ought to say something. But who are you going home with tonight, she thought and kept her mouth shut. People occasionally commented, very quietly, about Chel’s parenting but no one ever did anything about it no matter how bad it was. Hailey didn’t expect anything from these people either.

“I give you my word as Vorpatril that I will do this for you,” Ivan promised sincerely.

Chel nodded and stood up, “good, let’s go Hailey.”

“But you just got here,” Ivan stated in confusion.

“Surely you will at least stay for dinner, my chef has been working the entire day on these dishes,” Lady Alys stated.

Chel waved this away, “And most people complain about not having enough food. I’m sure you’ll find something to do with it. I have work to do. It would be nice if your driver could return us to my current address though I don’t need you.”

Chel was already looking through her data pad. Now that she had gotten what she wanted she no longer paid the group any attention.  
Ivan’s mouth hung open, Illyan’s jaw was clenched though he said nothing.

“You brought my granddaughter here as a… prop… as a hostage to get what you wanted and now you won’t even let me spend time with her,” Lady Alys demanded.  
Hailey got up now, they should leave before this devolved into violence, she thought nervously. Chel never fought fair.

“Ivan is relatively young, if you really wanted grandchildren you should get him married. I’m sure your money and title can secure him a pliant woman for the dubious purpose of continuing your genetic line. Hailey is mine. Let’s go Hailey,” Chel stated. Chel then turned her back on the group and headed for the wooden double doors and towards the elevator.

  
Hailey looked back at the three people who were still seated. Her stomach clenched.

“I’m really sorry for her behavior,” Hailey apologized before running after her mother who was already out the door.

They reached the ground floor and were a block away from the apartment complex when Christos appeared in his car. He pulled over next to them.

“Lady Alys Vorpatril bid me make sure you returned to your apartment safely,” Christos stated getting out to open the passenger doors for them.

Chel folded her arms and nodded at this, “very well,” she stated and got into the car. Christos did not offer her a hand in this time. Hailey followed. Hailey wondered vaguely if the night would end up with them being murdered in an alley. If Vorpatril is as high up in the political rafters as you claim and you just pissed him off who is to say he won’t be seeking revenge, she wanted to ask her mother.

“So this Simon Illyan, Lady Alys… husband? Was the former chief of the secret police,” Hailey asked.

“Hmm… he has a non-vor name I assume she will be stringing him along until she gets bored with him. The aristocrats here, just as everywhere think themselves a higher species. She would never stoop to marry him. And yes, supposedly he was quite fierce in his day. But he didn’t have anything to say tonight. His reputation is undoubtedly overblown, he’s just another little boy playing soldier. Just like Ivan,” Chel explained still studying something in her data pad.

“Ivan is a soldier too,” Hailey asked.

Chel shot her a look of annoyance, “I gave you a folder on him dear. I cannot understand why you didn’t look through it when you had the chance. Honestly, I can’t imagine how you would survive without me looking after you. You obviously can’t do it yourself.”

They arrived back at the apartment and Christos allowed them out of the car, unharmed.

“Lady Alys did want you to have this,” he stated offering a card to Hailey.

Hailey took it carefully from his hand and looked at it. She should have been prepared for Chel to swoop in and take it from her. That happened next.

Chel examined the card, and frowned in displeasure before ripping it up and returning it to Christos.

“ She doesn’t need this, she has me,” Chel informed the man before grabbing Hailey by the arm and pulling her into the building.

“It was only a call number for Lady Alys,” Hailey noted.

Chel sighed as they rose up in their own elevator to an economy apartment which Chel opened the door to.

“Darling, as you saw, Ivan does not have any children yet. His mother is obviously bored. I’m sure she doesn’t work and so she has to find something to fill her time. Until Ivan gets married she is looking for a stand in for her affections. But when he does find a wife and have children Lady Alys won’t have time for you. Think about it, you’re the daughter of a plebian, not a member of their vor system. Not to mention that you’re a bastard. And didn’t you look at her apartment, it’s much too elegant for you to fit in comfortably there. I’m not trying to be cruel to you. I only want to protect you from forming an attachment to someone who is just going to leave you,” Chel explained.

“Really, she seemed upset when you dragged me away,” Hailey noted.

Chel snorted, “That’s because you’re like a new toy to her. As she gets to know you she’ll get bored of you and move on. Honestly, look at your hair and your clothes. Is that what a vor lady would expect from her female children? You could never fit in with her life. Even if I left you with Ivan’s family, which I would never do because I care about you, they might be nice to you at first for the sake of duty, but they’d come to resent you when you failed to live up to their expectations. It’s not your fault, it’s just the way things are.”

Hailey considered this and though she wanted to call her mother a liar she couldn’t. She had no idea what the Vorpatrils wanted or expected from her.

Chel unfolded her arms and put them around Hailey in an embrace, “Oh, don’t look so sad dear, you know I can’t stand crying. Here, why don’t I make us some dinner and then we can watch a vid together, I’ll even let you pick it out.”

Hailey swallowed and nodded. She didn't have to believe her mother but sometimes it was best to give the appearance of agreement.


	2. Minders and Mealtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lunch scene with Alys, Simon, Ivan and Hailey
> 
> Warning: Domestic Violence

Hailey awoke the next day to find a voice message recorded from her mother. Chel had already left for the local Amnesty Watch chapter where her current office was in order to do more research for her upcoming interview with the emperor. Hailey fixed herself some breakfast, washed the dishes from today and last night and went back to the commconsole to study her Precalculus. If she didn’t teach herself then no one would and no telling how long it would take before Chel re-enrolled her in school. Hailey didn’t expect that they would be staying on Barrayar that long. The entire concept of a patriarchal society flew so violently in the face of Chel that Hailey couldn’t imagine them staying more than a month.

Hailey did this for about two hours before she got up to stretch and change out of her pajamas. She considered the laundry pile and decided that it would be wise to go buy some detergent and figure out where the laundry machines were in the building. She also made a list of foods to pick up at the store.

It was such a nice day out she only felt a little guilty about going outside instead of studying. She grabbed some money from the family savings drawer in order to buy groceries, stuck her knife in her boot, grabbed her wristcomm and headed out. She locked the door and descended the steps only vaguely worried that her clothing would make her stick out. The area was supposed to be relatively safe.

She got outside and picked a direction to walk in. Both seemed viable options. She briefly considered going back for a holo-map but decided against it. Even though it was small enough to fit in her pocket she didn’t want to take it out and look like a tourist. She wandered along until she reached an open air market. It wasn’t food that was being sold though, instead it was fine tapestries, paintings and jewelry.

Hailey moved through the stalls merely taking in the sight of things. She vaguely wished she spoke Russian as she had very little idea about what was being said. She did notice the man in the bland gray tunic when she doubled back to look at a pair of earrings she had put back and then reconsidered after traveling down several stalls.  
He was not so young, but not old, with brown hair trimmed short as seemed to be the fashion here. He looked muscular under his clothing though not a muscle head per se. His clothes looked baggy enough that he might be carrying a weapon under them. Hailey left the open air market and continued down the street. She walked past an antique book store and then doubled back as if she had changed her mind. The man in grey was still following her though he walked past the shop as she entered.

Her heart beat faster. Who are you and what do you want, she wanted to ask the man following her. If she were an action hero perhaps she would corner him and find out the truth before hunting down his master. In reality this would likely end with her getting shot. Are you with Ivan then, Hailey wondered and if so what do you want? Should she call her mother? Report this to someone? Run or ignore him and hope he was harmless?

She browsed the actual paper books for a little over twenty minutes while the store owner insisted on following her around the store and asking if she needed help.

“I’m sorry where is your bathroom,” she asked in English.

He growled something in Russian and gave a snort of disgust.

She closed the book she was holding and looked around, “upstairs is it,” she asked ingeniously and plopped the book on the table before turning around and climbing the stairs.

She strolled through the house as he yelled something at her and climbed out a window and down the fire escape hung from the side of the building. She dropped the last foot into the alleyway by the side of the building and headed back towards the street.

Perhaps you are going insane she thought as she watched the window. Maybe that fellow you thought was following you was just an innocent bystander and you’re spinning stories again. No one wants to follow you you’re not that important and now you look like an idiot, she told herself. She was about to turn away when there was more shouting and the man in the gray tunic also stepped out onto the fire escape. Hailey was about to bolt when she turned around and ran smack into Christos who grabbed her to steady her as she almost fell backwards.

Lady Alys was standing just behind him and sighed, “honestly Hailey, you shouldn’t taunt the poor man like that,” she stated, watching the man in the grey tunic climb down. The store keeper stood on the platform of the fire escape and shouted at him, commlink in one hand.

“Good instincts though,” Illyan noted, a smile on his lips as he gazed down at her.

Run, Hailey’s entire body told her. To where, she asked next. Should have brought a vid map, stupid!

“We didn’t mean to startle you,” Alys continued, “but since dinner was disturbed last night by-“ Alys began then changed her mind, “well would you like to come out to lunch with us?”

Why, Hailey wanted to ask. But she didn’t expect an honest answer. “Is he yours,” she asked gesturing to the man in the grey tunic who casually exited the alley and kept walking. He did not turn to look at them and acted as if climbing out a fire escape for a building were the most natural thing in the world to do.

Alys tilted her head slightly, “well no dear, he doesn’t answer directly to me. But perhaps I can explain the intricacies of politics on Barrayar in a more private setting. I have reservation for us at Fleur de la Coeur in a bit perhaps that would be a better place.”

Hailey was about to find an excuse to leave.

“It’s only three blocks away, should you be concerned about getting into a car with us,” Illyan noted.

“I can’t change the past fifteen years but I would so like to spend time with you,” Alys stated, a sudden crack in her voice.

Hailey was terrified that Lady Alys would start crying.

“I suppose that’s alright. For a little while,” Hailey allowed.

It was in fact two and a half blocks down before they found a building and traveled up to the restaurant in an elevator. They stepped out and Hailey considered the maître d, the carefully folded table-cloths and the general opulence of the place before considering her own outfit. She wore Prole jeans, a white t-shirt with the black outline of a lion roaring under a black jacket and black boots. No, she decided, she would never fit in with these people. “Are you alright, dear you look pale,” Lady Alys asked.

The older woman had noticed that Hailey had frozen in the hall and had turned back to look at her.

“I,” don’t belong here, Hailey thought. Why would you bring me to a place I have no business being in? Hailey quelled the rage, and continued, “I’m just very underdressed, I don’t want to embarrass you.”

Lady Alys had an expression of pity on her face as she looked Hailey over, “You look just fine as you are.”

Don’t lie to me, Hailey thought angrily. She only shrugged, “Just as long as the management here agrees with you, eh?”

“I own the restaurant dear, they’re not going to throw you out,” Lady Alys informed Hailey with a soft smile.

Hailey blinked at this, were women here allowed to own property? Perhaps she should have started her studies of Barrayar in current day rather than from the Time of Isolation. She was only just up to the failed take over of Escobar.

Hailey nodded slightly and followed Lady Alys and Illyan. She noted that Christos disappeared at the door but had no idea where he went. They walked towards a table in the back where a man in military uniform stood upon their arrival. Hailey looked her father over as they approached. Yes, he was very handsome. He shouldn’t have any trouble finding a bride anytime he wanted to and then Lady Alys would have plenty of grandchildren to dote on.

Ivan offered his mother a regulation kiss and a handshake for Illyan. He offered Hailey a friendly smile.

“Oh, you managed to slip away from your mother, must be a Vorpatril trait,” he said winking at her.

Hailey blinked up at him, but didn’t explain her mother’s distant parenting technique.

“You were going to tell me about the man in the grey vest,” Hailey said returning to the topic earlier.

Ivan and Alys glanced to Illyan who fielded the question, “Members of the high vor are assigned a perimeter agent to look out for them while on planet and sometimes off to keep the local lunatics at bay. He was only a plainclothes member of Imperial Security there to protect you.”

Hailey nodded slightly. She remembered the noticeable handlers on Giansu who had followed her and Chel around. The men and one female translator had taken them to very specific locations to best show off their planet’s cultural resources. This included “the Worker’s Field” which was nothing more than a model farm with well dressed “farmers” milling about. They also visited The Great Hall of the People where Hyuk Kyul gave all of his powerful speeches which was a giant hall with the largest number of glass chandeliers Hailey had ever seen. Just outside the minders had chased several beggars away. These minders in Giansu had also been tasked to “protect and guide them” which really meant making sure they didn’t see or record anything the regime didn’t want known about the place. So who assigned him to me and for how long, Hailey wondered. Did Chel know about this and should Hailey say anything to her? Hailey considered commenting on this but the server came up to inquire about drinks.

They had Dr Fizz at least. Alys and Illyan got coffee and after longingly considering the wine menu for a moment Ivan went with coffee as well.

“I did make the gambit of pre-ordering our food. I don’t think your allergic to anything,” Lady Alys commented.

“Oh, the food here is amazing,” Ivan commented enthusiastically, “though the stuff ma Kosti made last night was even better. You know we still have left overs if you wanted to take some home with you.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Hailey said.

Hailey considered Ivan more closely. She’d spent all of last evening trying not to look directly at them. She hated to watch people in pain and last night had been really bad. Ivan must be over six feet and well built, he definitely looked the walking recruitment ad for the military here. But what are you like, Hailey wondered.

“Did you get Chel that interview with the emperor,” Hailey asked instead. It wouldn’t matter what he was like if they were leaving soon.

“Yeah, a little over a week after today, do you think that’s soon enough for her,” Ivan asked. Ivan looked sheepish. “I haven’t called her yet,” Ivan admitted.

Don’t have the courage for it? Well, that was the response of plenty of others before you and it will doubtless be the response of many after you.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Hailey said, Chel’s pleasure at getting what she wanted would likely stem the criticisms for a short time.

“And where do you plan to go after Chel gets her interview,” Lady Alys asked seriously.

Afraid we’ll leave too soon or not fast enough? Hailey wasn’t sure of the older woman’s emotions. Was this meeting just to figure out how long the family would have to put up with these two interlopers?

“I’m sure we’ll be leaving soon after the interview. Chel wouldn’t want to stay here though I’m not sure where she plans on going next. At least to Komarr,” Hailey admitted. Is that far enough for you or are you worried about rumors, Hailey wondered. Lady Alys brow furrowed, not far enough I guess, Hailey decided.

“I hope she doesn’t think that’s far enough to escape the ire of the imperium should she pull any stunts during her meeting with the emperor,” Illyan noted darkly.

Trust me, my mother isn’t afraid of punishment or drawing ire. She likes it, Hailey thought.

“No, she… doesn’t enjoy the conquistador mentality of this place,” Hailey stated as diplomatically as possible.

There isn’t enough bail money on planet to keep her out of jail should they stay for long, Hailey silently added. Chel was sure to grate against this white male dominated society.

“It is tiring at times…though by no means as bad as galactic news media suggests,” Lady Alys admitted.

The first course of salads was served.

“I was unclear based on what I’ve heard from your mother and the reports coming in. Do you go on all of her trips with her? That must greatly disrupt your schooling every time she moves on,” Lady Alys noted.

Reports, Hailey wondered, about us? What kind of beehive had Chel stepped in this time? What kind of information were these people getting? Did they just want her here to answer questions that they couldn’t find in their “reports”? What do you want, Hailey wondered.

Hailey shrugged, “I do a lot of self-studying and if she decided we were going to stay somewhere for a while she’ll enroll me in school and I just take some exams to get placed.”

  
“So do you have long term plans for your education,” Lady Alys asked.

“I was planning to study bioengineering,” Hailey admitted.

She did not mention to her Barrayaran grandmother or to anyone else that she wanted to go to The Imperial University for Genetic Enhancement on Tau Ceti. She had told her mother once. Chel had laughed and told Hailey that it simply wouldn’t happen. You’re smart dear, but not that smart.

“Oh, yeah? Good for you, I hated math. Especially when they got rid of the numbers,” Ivan shuddered, “and when we got up to five space math, that was downright horrid.”

  
“While you’re here have you considered looking at some of the universities? Vorbarr Sultana has a wide variety of colleges available. I’m sure I could arrange for a tour of some of the schools if you’d like to look a them," Lady Alys offered.

“Women are allowed to go to college here,” Hailey asked in surprise.

She really should have started with present day and worked her way back, Hailey decided.

Lady Alys raised an eyebrow, “I had no idea that Gregor’s press office was doing such a bad job that we looked like uneducated troglodytes to the rest of the galactic community.”

“Certain branches of government are closed to women,” Illyan admitted, “but I do think Emperor Gregor is moving towards opening up more opportunities.”

“Oh, like in the military or the council of counts,” Hailey asked snidely.

All three adults looked up from their food at her. Oh, she was going to get it now.

“hm, not overtly, though women are plenty involved in politics here. It is merely subtle. If you’d like to see how that’s done I could show you that aspect too,” Lady Alys allowed.

Ivan shrugged, “to be fair most men here don’t have an option to participate in government directly. Nor do they want to if they have any sense.”

“Your mother did seem greatly involved in politics on several planets. Does she know that Ivan has no chance of getting onto the Council of Counts,” Illyan asked.

Hailey considered this then turned to Ivan, “but you’re not involved in any anti-government leadership are you,” she asked. Suddenly the idea of her minder, her white secret police officer took on a new meaning and she felt some admiration for Ivan.

“What?! No! Absolutely not, no way. I try to keep my head down and mind my own business,” Ivan declared on the verge of hysterics.

“Oh, then you have nothing to worry about from Chel. Love for her is a man in trouble.”

Hailey stopped her eating, had that been too much information? She looked up at the group who suddenly seemed interested. Damn but why weren’t you paying attention stupid, she asked herself.

“God knows Ivan tries not to be in charge of anything,” Illyan noted acerbically.

“Hey, I’m really good at my job at Ops, thank you,” Ivan declared defensively.

“What do you do,” Hailey asked.

“I’m aide-de-campe for Admiral Desplains,” Ivan declared sturdily.

Like a glorified secretary, Hailey could hear Chel demanding snidely.

“Vorpatril could I see your hands,” Hailey asked.

Ivan glanced at her curiously before putting down his fork and turning to her palms up. He sat on her left so she didn’t have to reach over the table at least. Gently she ran a thumb over his hands.

“Are you going to be taking Chel when she goes to meet the emperor or will he send a car for her,” Hailey asked. “Do you think I could get away with that,” Ivan asked hopefully.

“No, you’re going to escort her there,” Lady Alys stated firmly.

Chel is going to eat him alive, Hailey thought.

“Then I would suggest you leave the military uniform at home or head out to a gun range every day this week and get some callouses on your hands before seeing her again,” Hailey advised. On the other hand Chel had already shaken hands with him. She knew he wasn’t the sort of soldier to fire a weapon or throw himself on a needle grenade. Perhaps this was pointless. Still… maybe she would be distracted enough by her meeting to let him alone if he at least faked it a little harder. Chel could get very focused.

“Do you think that would help,” Ivan asked thoughtfully.

She shrugged, Chel never spoke to her previous husbands the way she spoke to you last night, Hailey thought but didn’t state. Chel was always more… respectful? Polite? Controlled maybe, towards soldiers and men of action. It was the talkers who got themselves into trouble with her.

The next course was brought out, it was a meat dish that smelled wonderful but of an unidentified animal. She considered it carefully.

“It’s vat grown dear, I wouldn’t feed you anything recently killed,” Lady Alys stated.

  
“Oh, well I wouldn't mind if you did. Chel's third husband used to hunt bison on the range and it was absolutely delicious," Hailey noted. She did not mention that sometimes he would take his fire arm to 'go hunting' only to return without an animal carcass. But we were waging a revolution, you know? Hailey didn't think they would know. She was saved from making comments that would upset them by Ivan’s wristcomm which suddenly went off. He opened his mouth closed it and got up to answer it.

“Chel, So good to hear from you. Yes I spoke with Emperor Gregor, yes he will meet with you soon. I’ll send you the details in a bit. No not now I’m having lunch with Hailey,” Ivan explained only then turning to see the motions Hailey was making.

“Oh, er, I mean… a Hailey from my work not your,” Ivan winced, “right um she went to the bathroom I’ll tell her to call you back?”

Hailey leapt up and pull the wristcomm from Ivan only seconds before Lady Alys got up to do the same.

“Chel, hi, I was just out walking when I bumped into my grandmother Lady Alys and she graciously invited me out to lunch,” Hailey explained in English for the benefit of all.

“Did you call to ask if that would be alright,” Chel asked in a pseudo-sunny voice in Basque.

“Well no, I mean she is my grandmother,” Hailey began.

“And she spent the last fifteen years raising you did she,” Chel asked.

Hailey sighed, “well no, but,”

“And she’s the one who you’re going to stay with tonight?”

“I mean we hadn’t even talked about.”

“No? If not living arrangements then what were you talking about? Were you talking about me? Were you stuffing your fat little face while telling them all about me,” Chel demanded, her voice rising.

Maybe, Hailey admitted to herself.

“They didn’t really ask about you,” Hailey tried.

“They didn’t really, does that mean they did or they didn’t? Stop mincing words, that’s what cowards do. You’re not a coward are you?”

I hope not, Hailey thought, she switched to Basque, “Could you not use that tactic on me? Could we have a normal conversation at least once where you didn’t try to manipulate or humiliate me?”

Chel backed up, she audibly gasped over the phone, “oh, so now it’s about your feelings? We’re not going to discuss how I feel about things? Here I bought us some pastries and I’m driving back to the apartment now because I’d hoped to spend time with you. But you’re too good for me now. You’re out with your real family now and you don’t need me. Well fine, just do whatever you want to. I’ll be home soon, alone no doubt because you can’t be bothered to spend time with me even when I carve time out just for you.”

“That’s not fair,” Hailey began.

“No, what’s not fair is how much I love you and you hate me,” Chel wailed then hung up the phone.

Hailey disconnected the call on her side and offered the phone back to Ivan.

“That didn’t sound good,” Ivan noted with a sympathetic grimace on his face.

She shook her head, “I’m sorry I have to go home. It was a pleasure spending time with all of you.”

“You don’t have to run back to comfort her every time she has a tantrum,” Lady Alys stated.

Actually I do, Hailey thought remembering that horrific incident when she was eight. Chel was such a finicky creature you could never trust her to make healthy choices.

“It’s very complicated,” Hailey muttered.

Lady Alys sighed, “at least let me get them to wrap dessert up for you,” she signaled the waiter.

“Oh, please don’t, it will just end up in the garbage disposal,” Hailey noted starting to head towards the exit.

Lady Alys caught her wrist, “I would like- we would like to see you more frequently. Please set aside time the next few days for some outings.”

Hailey winced, “I don’t think Chel would approve.”

“Don’t worry about her, I will talk to her about it. If there are any sites you’d like to see do let me know,” Lady Alys promised calmly, letting the girl go.

“I’m usually reticent about permitting assassinations… but for this woman,” Illyan shook his head and took a sip of coffee.

Lady Alys patted his hand, “hush dear, nothing so drastic needs to be done.”

 

When Hailey walked in the door of the apartment she found her mother in the kitchen.

“You know I stopped off at the bakery to buy us some pastries,” Chel stated.

She had the box open on the counter. It was a series of cream puffs, tarts and cookies.

“But I guess you’re not hungry,” Chel declared, picking up one of the tarts and throwing it violently into the opened garbage can. It hit the lid of the can hard and shattered, some of it falling into the garbage and some of it falling on the floor.

“I’m sure whatever they fed you was better than anything I could get for you. Is that it,” Chel demanded throwing another one into the garbage can.

“No, it wasn’t like that, I just wanted to spend time with my grandmother. But in the end it’s just the two of us, why are we fighting,” Hailey asked. She knew she had to placate her mother or things could escalate violently.

Chel paused at this acquiescence, but only for a moment. She picked up another tart, “we are not fighting, I am informing you of my disappointment in your behavior. How could you just run off with them when they offered you a meal? You know it wasn’t free, they wanted something from it.”

“Whatever they were expecting I doubt I gave it to them, they were just asking me about where I wanted to go to school and things,” Hailey stated.

Chel looked Hailey over for a long minute, “only because I interrupted them. I’m sure they were just lulling you into a false sense of security by pretending to be interested in you. That was rather pointless since you do have a tendency to leak information….”

But Chel put the pastry back in the box. The rage dissipating.

“I guess you ran back to me because you realized they were too high class for you,” Chel stated, “I guess that’s something.”

Hailey didn’t say anything. She used to talk about her mother to other people because she honestly didn’t know if Chel was a normal mother. Did others behave like her? Most adults gave her pitying looks or told her to just live with it and she didn’t have it that badly. But people didn't do anything about it.

“Yes, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have doubted you,” Hailey said eyes lowered. There was no point in continuing a fight she couldn't win.

Chel breathed evenly now, “well, I guess I can overlook your little indiscretion. Come on then, I have some vids of the emperor to watch. I want to know everything about him, what makes him tick and how he functions before my meeting with him.”

They both moved over to the couch and watched and rewatched vids of emperor Gregor for several hours.


	3. Just some girl talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lady Alys has a discussion with Chel and takes Hailey out to the gardens

The next day Chel arrived early at her temporary office at Amnesty’s local headquarters. She was surprised and displeased to find a familiar woman with brown hair turning grey seated and waiting for her.

“What are you doing here,” Chel demanded.

“Waiting for you of course,” Lady Alys noted putting her reader away in her purse, “I came to ask about taking Hailey out to visit some local sites.”

“No,” Chel declared and moved over to her desk.

Chel started to unpack but Lady Alys didn’t move.

Chel glared at her, “I can have security come and remove you.”

Lady Alys smiled, “I can tell your boss that you won’t let Hailey’s poor grandmother see her. That you keep her locked up in an apartment all day like a caged dog.”

“Then I would tell them that you’re a crazy old woman who never took an interest in her before,” Chel responded.

“And I would be forced to mention it’s because Ivan didn’t even know about his child. You kept her secret from her father, someone who deserved to know about her. You can try the self sacrificing mother angle, I know how good you are at it. But I promise I can play the distraught Vor matron just as well. And while you might not get fired for it, news about your cruelty will spread and hurt your reputation as tireless freedom fighter. People will wonder why you’ve been taking your innocent little daughter into danger all these years when she had a family right here that could have looked after her. Suddenly you go from self sacrificing to self absorbed and well… decisions about your future are made by people who suddenly don’t know you.”

Chel glared, “I don’t think you have it in you.”

“Try me,” Lady Alys stated calmly, a steely glint in her eyes.

“This is blackmail you know,” Chel declared.

Lady Alys shrugged, “I’m merely asking for some time with my grandchild. If it takes blackmail then I am not proud of it, but it is what I will do.”

Chel bit her lip, “you think you can just get away with this,” She demanded.

“Get away with what? No one is going to admonish me when all I want is to bond with my granddaughter. This is considered admirable in my society. Tell anyone you want to about the unreasonable demand I’m making and they will think you insane.”

“I’ll just tell them how Ivan walked out on me.”

“And how you went right back into the arms of your husband Enrico, at the time. Abandonment stories are so much more emotional when they don’t end with the adultress back in the arms of her cuckolded husband,” Lady Alys studied her nails.

“Hailey told you this,” Chel demanded.

“Of course not. You have that poor girl wrapped around your finger. But your actions aren’t as untraceable as you think.”

Chel shook with rage for a moment, it seemed she was about to get violent when she suddenly calmed down, "well I suppose it will keep Hailey out of my hair for a few hours if she spends time with you."

“If you don’t mind. Please call her and tell her so now,” Lady Alys stated.

“You.. question my integrity,” Chel demanded.

Lady Alys merely gave her an exasperated look to that effect but only said, “I just want to make sure there’s no confusion.”

Chel paused, but finally acquiesced and dialed up the apartment’s commconsole.

“Hailey sweetheart, you know I thought things through and I’ve decided it’s alright with me if you’d like to spend some time with your father’s family. You know we’re only going to be on the planet for a little while after all,” Chel smiled pleasantly over at Lady Alys.

Silence on the other side and Alys moved over to see if Chel was actually talking to someone.

Hailey was on the screen and she must have noticed Lady Alys in the background. The girl nodded slightly, “Well, that’s nice. I’m so glad you’re being the bigger person about all of this mother." “Am I not always the bigger person dear,” Chel asked letting out a martyr’s sigh. Then she continued, “but I really must get back to work. I’m sure your grandmother can talk to you about plans for the day at her convenience.”

Chel showed Lady Alys out. If it were possible Chel would have slammed the door behind her. Chel could only push the door close button extremely hard.

 

 

Hailey had just come back from a run when Chel had called. She was about to get in the shower when Lady Alys called a few minutes later.

“Hailey dear, I hope you have a little free time today, I wondered if you’d like to accompany me to the Imperial Gardens since its so nice outside or to the Sultana science museum if you’d prefer,” Lady Alys suggested.

“Oh, I don’t, either would be lovely,” Hailey stated in confusion.

How did this come about? Chel allowing this and Lady Alys showing up... oh this was only the beginning of war between the two, Hailey thought uneasily. But that would come later, just focus on the present concerns, Hailey told herself. She considering how well everyone seemed to dress compared to her and decided for the sake of her grandmother to dress nicely. No t-shirt and jeans this time. She pulled on her only other suit, a light blue blazer, white button down shirt with a black tie and black pants and her boots. She couldn’t remember if this was for a school uniform or not, but at least there was no logo embossed on it. She was dressed just in time to answer the door for Christos and Alys.

“I hadn’t wanted to rush you dear. But you certainly look… are you all ready then,” Lady Alys asked looking her over.

Yes, and it will save me the embarrassment of offering you ready-make coffee or tap water, she thought.

“Yes, I just oh,” Hailey paused realizing she was missing something and dove under her bed to grab her knife and shove it in her boot.

“Sorry, totally ready to go,” Hailey said.

Lady Alys did nothing so obvious as raise an eyebrow, “it’s not very typical for Vor-ladies to carry knives strapped to their boots anymore dear. Typically if she is being escorted by a proper gentleman he will offer to do all the bloodletting that is necessary.”

Hailey paused and considered removing it, “I don’t… feel good without it.”

Lady Alys considered the girl for a long moment before speaking, “your mother takes you to a lot of frightening places, doesn’t she?”

Hailey grew embarrassed and shrugged, “I got used to it after a while.”

“Well then keep it with you. There’s no checkpoint for the Imperial Gardens and the pantheon flowers should be in bloom for only a few more days. Come along then,” Lady Alys said.

The Imperial Gardens were not not so much a single garden but an open area with many varying gardens meant to represent the variety of climates and foliage that Barrayar had to offer with greenhouses for very special plants from Barrayar, Sergyar and old Earth. Hailey was particularly amused by the Sergyaran plant which was actually able to stretch itself towards them as visitors lobbed vat protein at it. She also got Lady Alys to talk about her work as the official hostess for the emperor.

“That sounds… exhausting,” Hailey admitted when Alys had told her the story about a drunken Henri Vorvolk falling into the wedding cake for the emperor 3 hours before it had to be unveiled and how a last minute emergency cake had to be flown in from a neighboring district.

God, and what do these people do about real problems like droughts? Famines? Wars? It was like the allergy hypothesis in immunology. Individuals in unhygienic third worlds were less likely to be allergic to things, likely because their immune system was focused on keeping the individual alive in the hostile environment. Take a person from an extremely hygienic environment and they had a higher chance for having or developing allergies. Perhaps because their immune system was on the prowl for something but there was no need for it. With nothing to fight it starts attacking innocuous substances. Then you end up in anaphylactic shock from drinking walnut milk. But Hailey kept that to herself.


	4. The tea room and other forays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quality and not-so quality bonding with the Vorpatril/Vorkosigan family

On a different day Lady Alys took her to the Imperial aquarium in the morning followed by a visit to a high-class tea room. The tea room was filled with well dressed women with daughters of varying ages. There was one very surly young boy who seemed to have had it with the place based on the way he was throwing things on the floor. His mother attempted to scold him in between her conversation with another woman at the table. The rooms were spacious and lit with antique looking chandeliers and white tablecloths. At this time of day the floor to ceiling windows were semi-covered by the drapes to give a hint of the city beyond but shut out the glare of the sun. They were directed to a table in the back by a very polite hostess who then walked off to answer a query from another matron.

“I hope you don’t mind waiting a little, Ivan is supposed to be along any minute,” Lady Alys noted checking her chrono.

They waited, Lady Alys began giving advice on proper Vor etiquette for “Future Use”. Hailey didn’t understand but allowed it to continue. Which it did for some time. She began to wish she’d brought a recorder because she wasn’t going to remember all of this advice. Finally Lady Alys looked down at her commlink and sighed in disgust, “Why don’t you wait here and I’ll go see what’s keeping Ivan.”

Lady Alys vacated the table and walked off towards the front, likely to harass Ivan in some privacy. Well, at least he’ll be happy when I’m gone, Hailey thought. Certainly a man in his thirties with wealth and a name was unmarried and childless because he wasn’t interested in it.

Hailey then turned her attention to watch a particularly anxious Vor matron looking around the tables. She suddenly looked up and locked eyes with Hailey, making a bee-line for her table. The woman said something in Russian.

“I beg your pardon ma’am, I don’t speak the language,” Hailey noted politely.

The woman looked her over and sighed, then muttered something.

Hailey waited expectantly, well stay or go, what do you want?

“Well I was looking for a strapping young vor lad to practice dancing with my daughter. The Midsummer Faire Ball is coming up and this is the first one I’m taking her to. As you can imagine this is a very big deal for a young woman and she’s very anxious to get all of the parts down correctly.”

“Right… so you want me to dance with her,” Hailey asked.

“Well, yes, now if you’ll just follow me,” the woman turned around and walked off.

Hailey considered staying at the table but curiosity and a vague sense of pity compelled her to follow the woman. Within the formal tea room there were smaller rooms off to the sides, presumably for people looking for a bit more privacy. One room lacked tables and chairs; instead it was filled by a young woman of about eighteen who stood pouting. The girl looked at Hailey and made whining noises. Hailey didn’t know about what but thought it might be about her height. She was several inches shorter than the girl. The mother made crooning noises and an elderly male servant in the background rolled his eyes.

“Now, Anastasia, honey, there aren’t many men to pick from in this tea room, I did the best that I could considering your sudden outbreak of nerves. Let’s try to make do,” the woman said in English.

Well thanks for that vote of confidence, Hailey thought. The girl whined some more. The woman said something sharp to her then gestured to Hailey.

“Now come here, stand like this,” she directed Hailey in hand placement upon Anastasia.

She then said something to the male servant who started some soft classical music playing.

“Now then, let’s start with the mirror dance, that’s easy and a good way to start. All you have to do is follow your partner,” the woman explained.

Hailey thought back to her readings of vor history and vaguely remembered looking at some of the dance moves. She’d thought many of them occurred in a group but there were a few two person ones. She had some concept of the waltz and the Spirridad, though she doubted that dance would be performed here.

Hailey tried some rather timid movements but over time built in more grand motions. This dancing lasted a short while and they eventually moved into another Barrayaran folk dance where the vor matron was at least polite enough to call out the dance movements as they were supposed to occur.

Hailey wasn’t much of a dancer but she’d practiced enough Sayokan to be relatively light on her feet. She was also wearing her boots so it didn’t matter that Anastasia occasionally stomped on her foot. Anastasia did seem to be getting more frustrated. At one point she broke off to whine to her mother who scowled and ordered her to go back.

Hailey vaguely wondered if Lady Alys was ever coming back or if Ivan had talked her into simply leaving. She figured she would do one more dance before going to look for her grandmother when Lady Alys walked in. Lady Alys did not speak to Hailey initially though she did quirk an eyebrow and said something to the Vor matron. Hailey did not enjoy this scrutiny. Hailey did not enjoy the sotto voce conversation between Lady Alys and the Vor matron who had stopped giving directions. They finished the set with the adults watching. Hailey turned to look at them. The Vor matron looked upset, though the reason was unclear. Had Lady Alys offended her?

“Well that was very lovely Hailey, shall we get back to the table then,” Lady Alys asked lightly.

“Well you didn’t tell me you were a girl, you’re not one of those lesbians are you,” the matron demanded. She looked as if she were worried that Hailey might sexually assault her right there.

“Beg your pardon,” Hailey asked.

Her dance partner Chelsi pushed her away, “oh, ew, gross, mama how could you let me dance with a lezzie?”

Hailey wondered why the girl decided to voice this protest in English rather than Russian. Really these people were stupid, it was probably all the inbreeding.

“Well, well, I thought you were a boy, you’re wearing pants,” the Vor matron declared glowering at Hailey as if she’d lied to the woman.

Hailey stiffened in embarrassment before retorting, “Ma’am, if you’re confused about the differences between boys and girls at this point then whoever was in charge of your education has seriously failed you. You should probably talk to a trusted adult about this, but a piece of advice for the future, girls can wear pants too.”

“Honestly, Empress Laisa has made trousers very in vogue these past few years, I hardly understand your argument Lady Vorzicki. Surely you don’t mean to suggest that the empress is a lesbian for wearing pants as well,” Lady Alys asked patiently.

“Well, no, but, but that’s different,” Lady Vorzicki sputtered. Her daughter had run into her arms and they were clutching each other still expecting Hailey to jump them.

Lady Alys sighed, “come along Hailey, we should leave Lady Vorzicki to gather her dignity. We have clearly caught her at a bad time.”

Hailey followed Lady Alys out of the room and back to their assigned table where Ivan sat waiting for them. Perhaps it will be nice to get off planet, Hailey thought. Chel was usually much calmer with government instability and the fear of death looming. Perhaps they would head out to Frost III.

“Despite what Lady Vorzicki thinks I thought you danced very well my dear, do you practice often,” Lady Alys asked once they were seated at the other end of the tea room.

  
“Well no, but I’ve been practicing martial arts for a while now and a lot of the same principles apply,” Hailey stated still cringing over the encounter in the other room. She tried to switch topics to something neutral and turned to speak to Ivan,” were you busy at work, Vorpatril?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ivan said grabbing a pastry that the server brought over, “lot’s of stuff to get done before midsummer. I thought I could slip out early but, well things came up.”  
Lady Alys kept up a steady stream of conversation and instruction throughout the meal while Ivan was mostly silent. Distracted by work or unwilling to be here, Hailey wondered. He hadn’t been that talkative at the last meal time either. Perhaps only now the shock and horror of having a bastard suddenly appear was getting to him.

At the end Lady Alys rose, “Hailey, Ivan wanted to spend the afternoon with you so I will be leaving the two of you to make plans or tour the city…safely,” she gave Ivan a particular look, “I will see you tomorrow.”

With that Lady Alys bent down and kissed Hailey on the top of her head, then Ivan, all before gracefully hurrying off.

Hailey and Ivan finished up before heading downstairs. She followed Ivan down to his shiny red sports car parked in the street.

“Anything in particular you want to see,” Ivan asked opening the passenger door for her.

She shrugged, “your mother took me to the imperial aquarium this morning…. Aside from that I haven’t seen much else around here. What do you do for fun?”

Ivan seemed to think about that, opened his mouth, closed it, “um, I think it’s a little early for the opera,” he noted checking his chrono.

“Ivan do you feel there’s a large cultural gap between the Vor class and the rest of the planet,” Hailey asked. Do you represent your people or are you just another despotic system, Hailey wondered. Tea rooms and trips to the aquarium and gardens were pleasant but Hailey wondered uneasily how everyone else lived. Was she expending resources for her amusement that were more desperately needed elsewhere?

“What? Gee I dunno, I mean I get along well with all my brother soldiers, Vor and not… I guess we’re pretty different from the hill folk from m ‘cousins district but that’s probably for the best,” Ivan noted pulling out of the parking space.

“Why do you ask,” Ivan inquired almost side swiping another car as he zoomed along to she didn’t know where.

Because I’ve lived among The People my whole life and this… this time playing in gardens, dressing nicely for normal occasions, and visiting tea rooms to learn social etiquette and what fork to use seemed so vague and pointless, Hailey thought. Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher noted that a person could learn manners once they were clothed and well fed. But she’d never lived among people who were well fed. There had always been bigger problems that she’d lived through or which loomed ominously on the horizon. And now…. Now she felt out of place even from this short time in the presence of these people.

“Oh, I was just curious about your thoughts on Barrayaran culture,” she tossed off, “I mean you’ve lived here your whole life. What do you think of it? Have you been to other planets,” she asked.

Ivan thought about this, “I haven’t done ship duty so my travel has been pretty minimal but I did spend time as a diplomatic attaché on Earth and I was on Eta Ceta for a funeral. Barrayar is a nice enough place as long as,” Ivan began then cut himself off, “but since you’re a girl you won’t need to worry about all the political intrigue. Just um, don’t wander too far out of the cities for now.”

“Oh, I don’t think we’ll be staying long enough to worry about that,” Hailey noted.

Ivan frowned, he maintained speed. Hailey couldn’t tell if this was some kind of test, did he want to see if she would flinch? She looked around the interior of the vehicle. This thing had plenty of safety features, they probably wouldn’t die if they got into a car accident.

Despite the inching traffic around them Ivan somehow managed to wind his way precariously through at a decent pace.

“Well, maybe you could stay if you really wanted to,” Ivan suggested vaguely.

“I had thought age of majority here was at least eighteen. That won’t be for another three years,” Hailey noted.

“Well I mean you do have family here so it’s not like you would be alone,” Ivan noted.

“I don’t think my mother would allow that.”

Ivan drove silently for a while, “well maybe she would change her mind? My mother is very persuasive.”

Hailey looked Ivan over in profile, is this for you or is this for your mother? Am I just a new toy for them to fight over? And when you see me every day will you be this interested, she wondered.

“It was the last request of my mother’s first husband Enrico that she keep me,” Hailey explained.

“Last request,” Ivan asked.

“He was in prison for several years for subverting the People’s party in Vivaria. They let us in to see him once just before they took him out and executed him.”

“Oh,” Ivan managed weakly.

They drove silently a little further on. And just how easy is it to ruffle your feathers, Vorpatril? If my mother even allowed me to stay could you handle it, Hailey wondered. So Hailey kept going, “My mother and I don’t get along but she never put me up for adoption or got rid of me. I suppose it’s because she loved Enrico so much and she felt guilty about sleeping with you that she even drags me along. But Enrico has been dead for almost nine years and likely beyond caring. Is there a point to it? I don’t know that I believe in a just and loving god or a life after death. Do you? And if there is, do you think that Chel and Enrico will ever find each other again? If they do will they still be in love? Certainly all experiences change people and so how could Chel and Enrico be the same people who did love each other once upon a time?”

Ivan looked down at her with the look of a deer just before a flaming space shuttle crashed into it splattering its guts all around for a 5 mile radius. Then he swung the car around in a u-turn. Are you taking me home then, she wanted to ask but didn’t. This must have been too much for Vorpatril, Hailey decided. She wasn’t surprised and only felt a pang of disappointment.

“Uhhh, you know those are some interesting questions Hailey. But I think I’d better confer with an expert in this field before discussing this further,” Ivan stated.

Hailey sat back, curious now. They came to a house just beyond a gated fence and a guard gate where the guard merely looked Ivan over and nodded. They drove up along the paved driveway and got out. Instead of entering through the main hall he led her around back.

“You know I might just want to go talk to her for a minute or two first before I take you out anywhere. You like bioengineering, that’s the same as genetics, right?”

Ivan’s question seemed somewhat desperate and the squeak in his voice betrayed this as well.

“Dr. Borgos,” Ivan almost shouted as they entered the basement and saw a thin young-ish man at the end of the corridor.

The fellow, a tall thin individual that reminded Hailey of a stork dropped the container he was carrying when Ivan called him. Fortunately it didn’t break and he managed to pick it up again, looking rather flustered as he did so.

“Ah, it’s… you again,” Dr Borgos noted unhelpfully.

“”It’s Ivan, just like the last four times I’ve,” Ivan began, looked down at Hailey and cut himself off, “but um anyway Dr Borgos is working with my cousin Mark on these bug things…. And they’re kind of pretty and maybe you’d like to see them,” Ivan squeaked again.

“Sure,” Hailey managed.

“Great,” Ivan patted her on the back, “Enrique, could you uh, show her the bugs? And have you seen the Countess?”

Enrique brightened, “oh yes, Captain Cordelia Naismith is upstairs in the second library, we just had a rather stimulating discussion about-“

“That’s great, Enrique, I’ll be right back. This is Hailey she likes bugs,” Ivan stated then suddenly looked concerned. He turned to her and asked, "You do like bugs don’t you?"

“I promise not to throw up or pass out,” Hailey offered.

“Right, um,” Ivan leaned over to murmer conspiratorially to her, “he’s just a little strange. But don’t worry he’s completely harmless. And I will be right back, I just have to go talk to my aunt for a minute.” With that Ivan took off running for the stairs. Enrique and Hailey watched him go before turning back to each other.

“Right, well I suppose I can show you the bugs… though Mark warned me not to talk to just anyone about their molecular make up,” Enrique frowned and peered down at her, “you’re not a spy for the competition are you?”

“Um, no,” Hailey offered.

Enrique brightened, “well that’s good and he opened the door to a laundry room, “in here we have our butter bugs. Now the original outlines for them were developed during my graduate school work in glucose metabolism but I realized….”

 

Ivan burst in on Cordelia as she sat in the library studying a vidscan from Chaos Colony’s current agricultural reports. Ivan quickly checked the room to make sure his uncle was nowhere in hearing distance before speaking.

“Aunt Cordelia, just wondering, is there life after death,” Ivan panted.

Cordelia looked up from her report and raised an eyebrow, “May I ask what this relates to before answering the question?”

“It’s about Hailey,” Ivan said, catching his breath now. Running up the stairs from the basement to the second floor hadn’t been so easy.

Cordelia looked suddenly worried, “is she alright?”

“Oh, she’s fine. Sort of. I left her with Enrique talking about the demon bugs.”

“Did she have a sudden pressing need to see these bugs or was that your own thinking,” Cordelia asked.

“Well I mean m’ mother took her to the aquarium this morning and I was going to take her out to that magnetic mini golf course. You know, something a kid might like but then she started talking about her mother and her mother’s dead husband and is there life after death and I don’t know! These weren’t questions I was worried about at fifteen!"

“This was a sudden outburst on her part,” the Countess asked thoughtfully.

“Well… no I mean I asked her if she wanted to stay on Barrayar and she said her mother wouldn’t let because of some promise to Chel’s first husband and then it kind of ran into that direction,” Ivan noted.

“Is Chel also coming for brunch with us? I would be interested in meeting her,” the Countess declared.

Ivan shuddered, “no, and a good thing too that woman has a tongue like a plasma arc. Though her looks almost make up for it and the way she - But we’re diverging, look, I don’t know how to do this fathering thing and I just - I- I don’t know what I’m doing,” he admitted in a small voice.

Cordelia shook her head, “Children don’t come with a handbook Ivan, it’s not as if anyone finds this parenting business easy.”

“Yeah but, I mean other people have fathers to show them how to do this stuff,” Ivan interjected.

Cordelia snorted, “Kiddo, if you’re just finding out now that life isn’t fair I have news for you.”

“But, this isn’t my fault!”

A raised eyebrow from Cordelia was enough.

“Well I mean she was a body birth and I did do it with her mother at some point so in that sense... But I don’t even remember it and her mother never tried to contact me so how was I supposed to know? I would have gone to find her if I’d known!”

Cordelia silently studied the anguish on her nephew’s face, “I do admit that I felt the same way when I learned about Mark. Just because your parent-child relationship starts a bit later than most that doesn’t mean you should give up so easily, eh?”

“But that was different, Mark kidnapped me and shoved me in a little tube! And he’s fat! Hailey is really small and cute…and I don’t think she likes me,” he admitted, ashamed.

“She doesn’t know you yet. I’m sure she’s just feeling alone and scared on a new planet. She just needs time to calm down," Cordelia advised.

Ivan was contemplative, “how long did it take for Mark to start calling you his mother?”

“Almost two years,” The Countess stated.

“Oh,” Ivan exhaled downcast, “well I mean… he was kind of damaged from Galen and that right? Maybe it won’t take so long with her.”

“Trauma effects people differently, you can’t really compare people in that way,” she paused, “I do hope you’ll let the poor girl settle in. Here I had no idea you’d be as impatient as Miles… but I suppose what stimulates you is quite different… hm.”

Ivan’s eyebrows shot up, “what? No way, no… I’m definitely nothing like that hyperactive little gi- um my cousin. Definitely just checking in to keep you informed and um, thanks for the talk. I think I’ll go take Hailey out now. Yeah.”

“Well, whatever your parenting style becomes I should note that Aral and I are returning to Chaos Colony soon after Midsummer and the Emperor’s birthday. So I cannot be acting in loco parentis for your daughter in the way that Aral was for you,” Cordelia explained patiently.

“”Yeah, I know, I guess. But you know ma mere has already requested a court date and custody hearing for Hailey. I’ve been trying to subtly bring it up with the kid. I mean Chel is really nasty to her but when I even mentioned coming to live with me Hailey refuses to even consider the idea,” Ivan complained.

“Perhaps the prospect of freedom to the prisoner is too much to bear just now. There are other factors at play here as well. From the reports it seems that Chel was married to Enrico for almost a month after Hailey was born. Does Chel tell Hailey the divorce was Hailey’s fault or does the girl just assume that? I do think guilt plays a role in their bond.”

“Well that’s ridiculous. Hailey didn’t have anything to do with that, she was just a baby. That wasn’t her fault she was born then,” Ivan stated.

“Do you feel guilt over your father’s death,” Cordelia asked quietly.

Ivan swallowed hard, “you know maybe this has been a bit much for the kid, I’ll just go find her and we'll check out that min-golf. Thanks, Auntie.” Ivan stood up and strode rapidly out of the room.

 

“Enrique who are you talking to,” A young woman asked as she walked up behind them.

Hailey jumped. She hadn’t meant to, she knew someone was behind them, but she’d done it anyway.

“Martya! We were just talking about the girls’ glycolytic cycle, this is, um, Ivan’s friend,” Enrique said gesturing to Hailey.

Martya rolled her eyes, “oh, no not again. You’re not a member of the Junior Imperial Scouts are you?”

“What happened with Ivan and the Imperial Scouts,” a male’s voice asked.

In trundled a couple, another tall blonde and a much shorter, fatter man. The room was spacious enough for all of them and still Hailey had the urge to run. But she hadn’t noticed a second door in or out of the room.

“About three years ago he got it into his head that girls liked cute things and that he was getting older. So naturally he looked into renting shelter dogs, except they wouldn’t let him take the dogs out on an hourly basis. Then he found out about a mentoring program with the junior scouts where he’d pick up some kid, it was Count Vorulas’s son Jamie, and take him out around town. It worked pretty well for him from what I heard until Ivan taught Jamie blackjack and the kid started fleecing his schoolmates," the tall blonde who had walked in with the small man explained.

“So Ivan is banned from further interaction with the scouts,” Martya supplied sweetly.

And were you surprised, Hailey wondered bitterly to herself. His randy behavior was already known as was his single mindedness towards it. This wasn’t so different from Chel who had cycles in which she went through men like a thresher, Hailey thought unhappily.

“Did the kid complain,” the small man asked in interest.

“Oh, Jamie thought it was great, his parents however freaked out. The countess more than the count when stories started to come out,” the other tall woman assured.

“It seems like Vorpatril spends a lot of time picking up women,” Hailey noted.

“Barrayar’s most notorious womanizer,” Martya snorted.

The other blonde gave Martya a dirty look.

“and what Kareen, like you’d disagree,” Martya argued back.

“Disagree about what,” Ivan asked walking in.

“Did you find your aunt,” Hailey interrupted the short man’s response.

“Oh, yeah. She was upstairs. We had a good talk. I guess you’ve already met everyone here.”

“We have yet to be formally introduced,” the small man stated.

“Oh, well, this is my daughter Hailey,” Ivan noted gesturing to her, then he pointed to the small man, “my cousin Mark Vorkosigan, Kareen Koudelka and over there is Martya Koudelka, they’re both old family friends.”

With friends like these who needed enemies, Hailey thought. But perhaps they were only telling things in the gentlest of terms. Surely Ivan would get tired of her quickly, Hailey decided. Having children assuredly impeded one's social life and Ivan seemed to like his as is, he wasn't going to change for her. He didn't want her.

“Why does everyone look so uncomfortable,” Ivan asked uneasily.

“Well… Enrique was just telling everyone that he thinks it’s unfair that only girls are allowed to wear dresses. Mark and the others were very dismissive of his comments. But I think that’s wrong, if Enrique wants to wear dresses he should be allowed to, right Vorpatril,” Hailey asked.

“Um,” Ivan wore the face of a man who had accidentally walked in on his decrepit grandmother after she had gotten out of the shower but before she had put on a towel.

“It does seem to take less time to put on and take off,” Enrique considered, “why when Martya does it-“

“Enrique! We had a talk about what is appropriate and not appropriate group conversation,” Martya declared through clenched teeth.

“And you told Da you were keeping it old Vor,” Kareen noted smugly.

“If you’re done talking to your aunt perhaps we should go,” Hailey noted. The sooner this happened the sooner she could leave.

“Oh, good idea,” Ivan noted watching the two sisters verbally jab at each other.

Hailey followed him up the stairs and back to the groundcar out front. The whole task of putting up with him and his family for another week suddenly seemed painful.

 

Ivan took her out to an indoor golf course in which the golf balls were magnetized in the same direction as the floor, allowing them to glide along the short courses. There was one small patch on each course with the reverse magnetization, drawing the ball to it, but it’s diameter of influence was very small so you had to be good to get it there.That was the point of the game. However the ball, if hit at the wrong time could be eaten by a jumping robotic fish on one course, attacked by a tentacle monster on another and bounced back by a four legged predator on another. Across the others were a variety of other obstacles including a replica nest of the Yrria, the animal carrier for the worm plague on Sergyar. In fact the entire course was themed after Sergyar pre-colony. Ivan didn’t bring up custody again though he did start to talk about the history of colonization on Sergyar from how his aunt and uncle met there while she was a Betan Astronomical Survey captain and he was in charge of a Barrayaran ship.

“So was it Stockholm’s syndrome,” Hailey asked.

“What, Aunt Cordelia coming to live here? No, it’s definitely Lima Syndrome. You should see the way the Count looks at her,” Ivan grinned.

Ivan was amazingly good at the game. He knew exactly how to hit the ball off of corners, off of rocks, off of the little hovering space ship in order to sink the ball on the magnetic pad. He beat the pants off of her, even after he cheated in her favor on a few courses.

“I used to come here with my cousin Miles when I was a kid. He has fragile bones and this was one of the low impact sports he could safely play. We got banned for a little while after he reprogrammed the predators on hole 12 to be more aggressive,” Ivan smiled at some past memory, “he wanted it to be more of a challenge. That didn’t go over well with the management.”

“It was nice of them to reverse that ban,” Hailey noted.

“Yeah, it helped that the regent of Barrayar came down and asked them to, nicely,” Ivan noted.

Ivan insisted on taking her out to dinner afterwards.

It was fine until halfway through the meal Ivan got up to answer a commcall from his office.

“No sir, I have no idea where Vorfolse got that information. I am not in prison for public indecency. No, well yes, but I can explain that,” Ivan got up to continue the call in a more private setting.

At that point a beautiful woman with cascading black hair, olive skin and bright green eyes sauntered over and sat down in the chair Ivan had vacated. She had been eating with a man who turned around in his chair to watch them in interest, but he maintained his distance. Hailey had noticed her scowling at them over the course of the meal, but she had not alerted Ivan to the woman’s presence. Perhaps that had been a mistake.

“And who, are you,” the woman demanded.

“I was sitting here first, you’re the interloper, you should identify yourself,” Hailey stated.

“I am Lady Angelica Vortrefinnis, Ivan Vorpatril’s former lover,” the woman declared.

Crow’s feet were just starting to form near her eyes, but she didn’t look much older than her late twenties or early thirties otherwise. “huh,” Hailey offered unhelpfully. Hailey allowed the silence to stretch, the food here was good, some western, local dish, she’d let Ivan order for her and he had come through. She was vaguely aware that stunners were allowed for members of the vor class and their armsmen. More deadly weapons were allowed for specific military personnel while on duty. She also knew the discrete detector at the restaurant’s entrance had not blared when Hailey had walked through. Either it wasn’t functional or it didn’t respond to metal. Or it had alerted the owners but they hadn’t seen fit to act? Would management or the local guard respond the same if Lady Votrefinni was carrying a blade or plasma arc of her own? Hailey didn’t know. Would a recently dumped lover respond violently, Hailey wondered uneasily. How many of these women do you have in your past, Barrayar’s most notorious womanizer? She turned around to look for Ivan but he was nowhere in sight.

“Don’t tell me that Ivan has given up on women and has moved on to little boys,” she sneered.

“Actually I was recently in a juvenile detention facility for crimes my lawyer has told me not to discuss. As part of my rehabilitation back into society Ivan is acting as my mentor. We’re required to spend a certain amount of hours together, or I get thrown back in the pit,” Hailey explained, “and I can’t do no more time. Do you understand?”

Angelica frowned, “what? Is this like the Junior Imperial scouts all over again? Count Vorula’s boy was much cuter than you and he had manners becoming of a Vor. But I guess beggars can’t be choosers.”

Hailey couldn’t decide if she was supposed to be the beggar in this scenario or if it was Ivan. She did wonder if this woman had any other emotional ranges besides pissy and bug up your ass pissy. Hailey allowed the silence to settle again. She didn’t need to talk, this woman did and Hailey enjoyed watching her fidget. Hailey could tell Angelica wanted her to get angry and to bite back.

“I just hope you don’t have a mother. Ivan can have a devastating effect on women. He just comes along, acting like he’s a gentleman and for a time he is. He opens doors, he takes you out to nice restaurants and to the opera. But the very moment you ask for commitment from him suddenly his commconsole doesn’t work, he forgets to return your calls and after a period of silence you finally get a short text from him “maybe we shouldn’t see each other anymore”. Six months and he can’t even call me. Do you know what that’s like,” Angelica demanded. An odd noise came from across the restaurant and Hailey turned to see Ivan heading rapidly in their direction.

“Angelica, so nice to see you,” Ivan said with a look on his face which said the opposite, “and you’re here with your fiancé Gareth Vormoncrief. How nice.” Gareth gave Ivan a mild wave from his own seat but made no move to intervene.

“Your little thug tells me you’re out mentoring juvenile offenders now. Is that what this is? Oh, how you’ve sunk,” Angelica glowered.

“Wait what,” Ivan looked at Hailey in confusion.

“This time still goes on my sheet you hear? Contrary to what they say, those prison orbs and shock fences do a mighty fine job of keeping both my body and soul in that damn hellhole,” Hailey stated.

“You know what… I was going to publicly humiliate you, but it seems you’re doing a perfectly fine job of that on your own,” Angelica stated.

Hailey wasn’t sure if Angelica and Gareth left because they really did feel something like pity for Ivan or if Hailey was just weirding them out.

“Uh, sorry for that. I hope she didn’t say anything too upsetting. Old girlfriends you know,” he smiled nervously.

“It’s fine,” Hailey said.

They finished up and Ivan drove her home.

“Did you want me to walk you upstairs,” he asked.

“No, I’ll get less hassle if I go up alone,” Hailey said getting out of the car.

“Oh, pick you up tomorrow morning then,” Ivan said.

“Yeah,” Hailey shut the door and walked into the apartment.

She had expected a shouting match from an angry Chel. A helluva way to end the evening. But Chel emerged from the bathroom as Hailey sat down on the couch and turned on the vid. Hailey looked over at her mother who wore a black evening gown, just low enough for a peek at her cleavage but not too low. She wore more obvious make up now than she did during her normal working day and the high heels were a dead give away.

“You’re dressed particularly nicely tonight, mother,” Hailey noted carefully.

“I have to go work late at the office dear. Did you have a nice time with your father?”

“I hated every minute of it and I can’t wait to leave,” Hailey noted turning on the news. This was not entirely true but there were certain words and rituals that were necessary to placate her mother.

“Oh, are the masks coming off so soon? I did warn you about them, it’s a good thing I’m here for you,” Chel noted.

“Should I make anything for dinner,” Hailey asked.

“No, I won’t be back until very late.”

“If you come home at all,” Hailey muttered. She knew after it came out that this was the wrong thing to say. Her mother stepped over to her and Hailey received a hard slap across the face.

Chel stood over Hailey now, in her personal space.

“And what does that mean dearest,” her mother asked in false sweetness.

“I’m sorry, I know you’re a busy woman I shouldn’t have said that to you, it was just,” Hailey began.

“It was just, It was just, It was just what,” Chel mocked her.

“I was angry with Ivan because one of his many previous lovers accosted me today and I wasn’t brave enough to tell him off about it. So I took it out on you, I’m sorry,” Hailey said.

“Many previous lovers,” Chel asked.

“Yes, he’s quite the town bicycle, you know, everyone has had a ride,” Hailey explained, she didn’t dare touch her cheek and her ear was still ringing. Chel still looked tense and ready to continue the physical violence if Hailey couldn’t appease her fast enough. It had been a while since Chel had been physical with her. You know you could probably take her at this point a small voice said. Yes, and where would that leave me, the other sneered.

Chel breathed in and out and finally readjusted her hair, “yes your father is a bit of a slut isn’t he? No concept of delayed gratification, no concept of hard work, I’m sure his step father got him his job. No substance to the man, he’s just another pretty popinjay out to waste resources and his life on himself rather than on helping society.”

Hailey wondered how long this rant would go for. Sometimes Chel could keep it up for an hour before she sought input from someone else.

But Chel caught sight of the chrono and stopped herself five minutes in.

She pursed her lips, “you know Hailey you’re older now and I guess you should know I’m not going into work, I happen to have a date.”

Chel watched Hailey’s response carefully.

Well, I always knew that, Hailey thought, instead she shrugged, “I understand that you have needs too and that I shouldn’t get in the way of them. You pay the bills you make the rules ma’am.”

Chel nodded and smiled, “good, I’m glad we had this talk. Lock up after me and don’t be a nuisance.”

Hailey watched her mother leave, she watched the vid a little longer. It was a Betan news channel that they got even here. She knew she ought to go do schoolwork, she’d spent the whole day playing and she should be productive but she couldn’t get herself to do it. She opened her genetics books on the vid reader but after half an hour she gave up. She wandered into the kitchen and looked through the pastries left over from last night’s fiasco. My how we’ve regressed Hailey thought back to the days before Chel had met her third husband Isa. These had also been filled with long nights alone when Chel was “working” and Hailey had been left home. Still better than if Chel had brought the man home Hailey supposed.

She pulled off her nice clothes, put on some other things she found around the house. Black jeans, red undershirt and an olive green hoodie with the black outline of a gas mask on it and the words “more educational than a boot to the head” written in English across it. The boots and knife went back on as well and Hailey went out, locking up behind her. She grabbed the first bus that came by and rode it to a destination. It didn’t matter she didn’t know what the stops meant anyway.


	5. Barrayaran Night Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hailey decides to visit with The People and ends up with the Koudelkas

Hailey wandered around a while. She was restless but found some some solace in people watching. There was a street with brightly lit bars and young people popping in and out of one to go to another. Technically alcohol was allowed to be given to all individuals when with their families. But if it was just a group of young people sixteen was the legal limit. 

She went into a convenience store a block up and pulled out a chocolate malt shake before walking up to the counter where a harassed looking blonde woman sat. The woman shouted something at her and typed something into the register.

“Gimme a pack of Starlite cigs too,” Hailey said on a whim. She figured if she was going to wander around the city looking into the seedy underbelly she should probably start smoking. That’s what the holovid characters did anyway and she was feeling reckless just now. Stuck between a rock with Chel and a hard place with Ivan the natural solution was to go out and do something stupid, she decided.

The woman frowned down at her, “Vat?”

Hailey pointed to the brand she wanted and pulled out her old school ID. She tossed it on the counter as if that were enough. In Russian, English, French and Greekie a sticker slapped on the front of the register said that the store owner would not sell cigarettes or alcohol to individuals under 16. Hailey was 15 but she knew from previous experience that it was easy to get away with plenty if you had a foreign ID.

The woman raised an eyebrow and picked up the ID. It did not have Hailey’s birthday on it but it was also written in Spanish, the required government language of Escobar and their most recent home.

The woman said something to her. Hailey held up her credit chit.

The woman said something else more annoyed. Two clearly drunken young men behind Hailey shouted something. The cashier yelled back.

“Hey little brother, what do you need,” One of the men asked in English Hailey, sliding an arm around her shoulder.

“my cigarettes, starlite,” Hailey nodded to the shelf.

“You one of them offworlders huh? Here to buy cigarettes? It’s an awful long way to travel for that and you’re all by yourself.”

Hailey stiffened.

“It’s cool though, you being little and all I’m not gonna fight you,” the man said then shouted something at the cashier who shrugged and rang up Hailey’s stuff and the men in one order.

The man with his arm around Hailey pushed aside her credit chit and offered his. 

The other man with him said something offensive to the cashier who yelled at all of them and pointed to the door.

They walked out and Hailey tried to get away but the man grabbed the back of her hoodie and pulled her back.

“Hey relax, you want your stuff right,” the guy handed her the malted shake and the cigarettes.

She backed up, she was pretty sure by the way they stumbled that they wouldn’t catch her if she bolted.

“You want to come back to our place,” the guy asked.

His friend was either very drunk or understood the undertones of the question since he burst out laughing so hard he almost fell over.

“Oh I can’t I have to go water my cat,” Hailey explained then backed up further and ran. 

She got two blocks before she turned around to make sure they weren’t following her. She sighed in relief and continued on through a residential area with brick laid sidewalk. People were out on their patios eating dinner on some of the porches while others could be seen inside. Even among the middle class here jeans seemed to be eschewed for some other fabric. She did notice on another club street that some young people wore jeans, but they also tended to have face tattoos or a copious amount of piercings. 

After a few more blocks she entered another area of bars, as she passed along she noticed the themes of them, some had giant wooden figurines that you’d see in Khytreysha. Others had girls in skimpy kimonos. The most popular theme seemed to be “Time of Isolation” here, or that’s what she thought all of the corsets that showed copious amounts of cleavage were about. The second most common bar was a space ship design, wherein the entire inside of the bar was shaped and colored like the inside of a spaceship. From what she could see the waitresses were covered head to toe in colorful paint, pseudo-body mods. They wore white loincloths over their lower privates and large stars over their areolas. 

A large man dressed in pseudo military garb, as were all the males of the bar pushed her slightly and said something.

“Sorry, what,” she asked.

“I asked if you got ID for this place little man,” he said in English. She shrugged and moved away.

Further down she saw a bar in which customers and owners alike wore house colors, only slightly off from the official colors the vor actually wore. On the street she saw a man with dyed white hair wearing a brown and white suit like the clothing of Ivan’s aunt’s armsman. He was collarboning off a laughing blonde in green and blues. The “vor” girls had very short skirts, not at all what Lady Alys would approve of. 

Well this is a cultural tour of sorts she thought. She noticed a sign for the subway and went down. The tunnels had only been blasted some thirty or so years ago when the Regent, Aral Vorkosigan had ordered them put in to cut down on the city’s crippling traffic problem. The tile floors and ceiling looked new because they were. That and a tireless and vast team of cleaners helped. A train pulled in and Hailey got on, not worried about where it was going. She rode a few stops and got off when the train started to get crowded. She felt antsy and raw, the entire idea of someone sitting even near her was rubbing on her nerves. 

She walked up the steps, noting that the lift was out of service but escalators seemed to be newly installed. Their design didn’t quite fit the inside of the station. Was this a comment on bureaucratic laziness or the Barrayaran tendency to marginalize those who weren’t able-bodied? She remembered that disability legislation had only started being put in place to require employers not to discriminate against those who used float chairs or other means of transportation. That had been a big deal. Laws on making work places available to all were also slow in moving from paper to the physical world and companies were slowly installing measures to allow people who were blind or deaf to work there. Some of this could be solved in vitro in the uterine replicator which would cut down on their congenitally blind or deaf, Hailey thought. But the uterine replicator was only just becoming widespread as a means for producing offspring, there was plenty of cultural backlash to it even among the Vor. How do you refuse someone the chance to fix their congenitally blind son or daughter in the uterine replicator and then turn around and refuse to let them enter society because they weren’t “normal”, Hailey wondered. The term “mutie” seemed to be a slur around here but Hailey wasn’t yet clear if it referred to everyone who wasn’t “normal” or only physical disabilities. Did bipolar disorder or schizophrenia count as well, did all mental disabilities including dyslexia make someone a "mutie"? 

The area she entered was deserted. Government buildings late at night tended to be. She thought it cute that the Imperial Department of Agriculture had stalks of corn growing out front but the other buildings seemed uniformly bland. She finally pulled out the cigarettes she’d been gifted by the drunken Barrayarans and managed to light one. She hadn’t smoked before, except that one time behind the gym with some other kids who thought they were bad ass. Maybe she would take up chain smoking as a habit, she thought. It was supposed to calm the nerves, right? She puffed on one then proceeded to cough and choke. She tried some more but finally gave up. There was a reason she’d only done it once before. Well, the stupid deed for the night has been accomplished, she decided.

There were little parks sprinkled about with statues here and there. Men riding horses with swords, men riding tanks with RPG launchers in hand, very detailed designs of Barrayar’s combat aircrafts were on show in one interactive holo that was activated by walking up to the pedestal. She considered taking a pix of the one statue devoted to women, it depicted a heavy weight vor matron carrying a basket of something with a pack of children clutching her skirts. Well I guess I can go home, now that we all know who our role models are supposed to be, Hailey thought cynically. Her wristcomm was dead though. She should have charged it before leaving the house, which meant the vid map she had downloaded unto it was not accessible. Well, this should be interesting, she decided. 

She briefly considered looking around for her minder and demanding a ride home from him but decided against that. Asking for help always led to long lectures and gloating long after the event had passed. It also meant that in the future she wouldn’t be trusted to go out alone. No, definitely better to do things alone if she could help it. But perhaps she’d get a lecture about this anyway from Lady Alys. The woman seemed to be in charge of turning every awkward vor bud into a beautiful butterfly, suitable for marriage of course. No doubt the woman would be upset about Hailey being out alone without a male protector. 

Five more years of being under Chel’s care and only three more if she lived with Ivan, Hailey thought considering the galactic versus the Barrayaran age of majority. But could you do that? And would they be any different in the long run? How long before Lady Alys started demanding Hailey wear dresses and act like a proper vor maiden? I'll be playing the piano and chasing boys in no time, Hailey thought in disgust. She wondered then about Ivan, that was a lot she wanted to ask him. If you break up so easily with all your girlfriends when they start asking for commitment how long before you get bored of me too and what happens then? Boarding school? She wouldn’t mind that, she’d spent six months in one while Chel was married to her second husband He-Who-We-Must-Not-Mention. How do you respond in anger, Ivan she wondered. He probably hit harder than Chel.

Hailey trudged around, coming to a new metro stop where she thought she’d left the old one. Whatever, she decided, too tired to care at this point. She went down, analyzed the maps for a little while, paid the fare and got on a train. She got off where she thought she was supposed to and noticed the human worker was no longer in his booth.The station was pretty deserted, she checked her chrono and realized how late it was; or early. 

She trudged up the stairs to find that the last autobus for the night had come and gone and the next one would arrive in five hours. 

She sighed, found the pack of cigarettes in her pocket and considered trying to take up chain-smoking again before throwing them in a bin. Don’t you ever learn, she asked herself. A few nice cars drove past and one stopped a little ways down the block. Out bounced a tall blonde woman.

“Hailey,” the woman inquired.

Fuck, Hailey thought, she was in no mood to converse with anyone and she really didn’t want to talk about why she was out now. Was Ivan going to be informed about this? Was Ivan going to bother to do anything about this, she thought more cynically.

The woman moved towards her and Hailey noticed a man get out on the other side of the door. She couldn’t tell with the dim streetlights but she thought the uniform he was wearing looked military enough and she couldn’t decide if he had a stunner holstered under his jacket. Well, no point in running away now, she thought.

“What are you doing here,” the blonde, Martya demanded.

“Cultural tour,” Hailey answered.

Martya gave her a look, “do you even know where you are,” she demanded.

Hailey guessed from her look that this was not a very nice part of town, though the streets were very clean.

“On Barrayar,” Hailey offered.

“Does Ivan know you’re out,” Martya asked.

“I’m on my mother’s watch at the moment.”

“And where is she?”

“You’re very nosey, aren’t you?”

Martya snorted, “comes with having three sisters. We’re just coming back from the orchestra, did you want a ride home?”

“No, I think I’ll just wait for the bus.”

“For five hours?”

“My mother told me not to get into cars with strangers, unless the words “free kittens” is spray painted along the side of it.”

Martya either did not get the joke or she didn’t think it was funny because she just pointed back to the vehicle and said, “get in the damn car.” 

Hailey might have considered arguing further but it was really cold out now. The temperature must have plummeted since she started her adventure and she’d been out walking for hours at this point. She trudged over to the car to find Kareen and another blonde in there as well. She considered arguing with Martya for the window seat at least but decided not to bother and slid in. Martya slid in as well. The man who had been escorting them slid in on the opposite side. It was mystery man and mystery woman across from Hailey while Kareen was on her left and Martya on her right, locked in tight. 

Martya took up the task of introducing everyone, “This is my eldest sister Delia and her husband Duv Galeni and you know Kareen. This is Ivan’s daughter Hailey.”

This is too much enforced closeness for my liking just now, Hailey thought. Maybe she should feign car sickness… or actually puke. 

“Did you have an address we should drop you off at,” Duv asked politely. 

Hailey considered this and fished around in her pockets before pulling several cards out, she leafed through them until she found the one for the apartment and handed it to Duv who passed it through a small port to the driver and gave instructions.

“What are the other cards for,” Marty asked.

“Uh, one guy asked me to join his band, I have a frequent members card for this Uyghur bakery in little Xinjia, another business card for a club and one for a records store,” Hailey noted going through them.

“You play an instrument,” Delia asked politely.

“No, but the porcupine recognized my shirt and figured I was a galactic, he thought that would be a draw anyway even if I didn’t actually contribute.”

“The porcupine,” Kareen asked.

“You know, spiked out hair in multi colors,” Hailey explained, it was a subculture involved in soft drugs and tearing down the centralized government… through drug use. So it wasn’t exactly dangerous, but she figured mentioning that might cause issues since the man of the car definitely looked the part of the military officer even if he was only wearing a well cut Barrayaran style suit. 

“So your mother just lets you wander around the street at night or did you slip out,” Martya asked. 

My mother couldn’t care less where I was right now, Hailey thought.

“My mother is working late, she has an interview with the Emperor in a few days and she wants to research and fact check, then double fact check all of her information,” Hailey explained.

“So she doesn’t know,” Martya smirked.

“Considering that her job involves figuring out how effectively the ruling party responds to the needs of its people, all I was doing was gathering intel on the culture surrounding your aristocracy.”

“warrior caste,” Delia corrected.

“Whatever, even if she knew she wouldn’t care. If you’d like I can give you her business address and you can talk about it at your leisure,” Hailey offered.

“Well I would think she wouldn’t want you walking through just any parts of Vorbarra Sultana. The city is mostly safe, but there are certain pockets where it would be best to avoid,” Delia noted.

“Oh, the more danger the better. The Mujica motto is “I’m out of firing range, I’d better get closer.” I’m just trying to keep up family traditions,” Hailey explained.

“That would be an interesting mix with Ivan’s motto,” Duv noted with the hint of a smile.

“Which is,” Hailey asked.

“Duck and Cover,” Martya supplied.

Delia laughed and offered, “no it’s try to look like an innocent bystander.”

“Or, “It’s not my fault,” Kareen put in.

Duv had been watching Hailey’s face during this exchange and gently put in, “I met Ivan when he was a lieutenant attached to the Barrayaran Embassy on Earth. I assure you that for all of his mutterings to the contrary he is perfectly capable of bravery.” 

“So… Ivan hasn’t told us anything and even Lady Alys and Captain Illyan have been pretty mum about it. Do you think your mother and Ivan are going to try and make it work,” Kareen asked.

Hailey burst out laughing then paused, “oh, you were serious… no I don’t think either of them want that. Wait, so where are your dates,” she asked Kareen

Kareen rolled her eyes, “Enrique and Mark decided that they had to work late, our new bug facilities have finally been built near Hassadar and they’re drawing up plans to move out of Vorkosigan house’s basement.”

“That and Mark is still terrified of Duv,” Martya chimed in sweetly.

Duv looked mildly embarrassed but did not add to this.

“That and Enrique decided he did want to try on dresses after Hailey’s suggestion earlier. So he’s been walking around all afternoon in one of the countess’s old dresses,” Kareen added in an equally sugary voice.

“I’m sure he’ll give it up once he gets tired of not having pockets,” Martya hoped.

Duv raised an eyebrow, “you suggested he try wearing dresses?”

“It was the fastest way to get past an otherwise awkward discussion,” Hailey explained.

“More awkward than talking about Enrique in a dress,” Delia asked.

“I might have mentioned Ivan’s reputation,” Martya admitted, almost but not quite embarrassed.

Hailey shrugged, “it’s fine, I ran into one of Ivan’s ex-girlfriends when we went out to dinner anyway. It seems his reputation is well earned.”

Delia and Duv winced, “was it that bad,” Delia asked.

“No, I just told the woman I was a juvenile offender and that Ivan was mentoring me as part of a court order,” Hailey explained.

“Why didn’t you just go with the truth,” Kareen asked in confusion.

“Hm, tell her I’m the bastard child of her commitment phobic ex who did it with an off worlder and then bolted? No, that news would spread like wild fire I bet. I figure the fewer people who know about me the easier it’ll be for Ivan to get back to his regular routine after we leave.”

“So you don’t want to stay with him… but you don’t want to… ruin his reputation,” Kareen asked uncertainly.

“I have nothing against him, but I don’t think we would work well together,” Hailey said.

Better the evil that you know than the evil that you don’t, she thought. The entire back of the car looked at her. She hadn’t said that thought out loud did she?

“You know… our sister Olivia is out with her fiancé Count Vorrutyer, technically she still lives in the house and her bed is there but in practice well… our parents have reluctantly started turning a blind eye. But maybe you’d like to stay with us tonight,” Kareen offered.

“No.”

“Our Da made the best brillberry pie yesterday and we still have some left,” Kareen tempted, “with ice cream.”

“why do people keep insisting on feeding me,” Hailey demanded.

“It’s probably because you’re so short and skinny,” Martya said pinching her.

“Hey! We have rules about that,” Hailey flinched and moved closer to Kareen. 

“Oh come on, what else are you doing tonight? Are you going home alone to wallow in self pity,” Martya asked.

“Actually I was going to jazzercise in disillusionment. I really can’t do that with an audience. I’m self-conscious you know,” Hailey supplied. 

“Well we’re a very small, supportive audience and you have to face your fears at some point,” Kareen offered.

“Yeah, because whatever doesn’t kill you… will kill you eventually,” Hailey offered sarcastically.

“That’s the spirit, and Kareen always wanted a younger sister to boss around,” Martya added.

“Martya had Olivia and I to boss around, but now she’s looking for a replacement for Olivia,” Kareen shot back.

“If you don’t stay with Ivan, I’m sure we can talk mama and da into keeping you,” Kareen continued.

“Our new sister,” Martya supplied and she and Kareen both suddenly hugged Hailey who stiffened.

“Somebody just kill me now,” Hailey said.

Delia laughed and Duv smiled and turned around to say something to the driver.

“New little sister isn’t very good at hugging,” Kareen frowned, in pseudo-dejection.

Martya just sighed and smiled wickedly, “we’ll just have to work at it.”

The conversation continued in this vein for a little while longer until they pulled up in front of a house. Duv got out and opened the door for them, helping Martya out of the car who dragged Hailey along, Kareen also accepted a hand from Duv. 

“You know as a military officer I think you’re required to report a kidnapping,” Hailey declared hotly to Duv as Martya pushed her towards the Koudelka front door.

“Wait,” Delia called from the car, she gracefully hopped out of the car with some assistance from Duv and ran over to Hailey. 

Perhaps it was fatigue or what had happened earlier but Hailey flinched and threw up her hands in a warding gesture as Delia reached over.

There was a brief silence.

Hailey dropped her hands self consciously, “sorry, uh, habit?”

Delia wrapped her arms around the girl in a hug, “relax, we don’t start beating you until you’ve been with us a while.”

“You’ll have a wonderful time,” Duv promised getting back in the car with Delia.

Once they got inside Martya led her to the kitchen and pulled some pie from the fridge which she cut for the three of them, she cut a fourth slice when an older man walked in. “You’re a little young to be a suitor,” the older man rumbled looking Hailey over curiously.

“Hi Da, this is Hailey, Ivan’s daughter she’s staying with us tonight,” Kareen explained giving her father a peck on the cheek.

“Ivan’s daughter,” the man peered down at her now more curious, “huh.”

“we’re putting her in Olivia’s bed for the night,” Kareen continued.

“Oh? But what if Olivia comes home?”

The two daughters shared a quick look, “then she can sleep on the couch,” Martya stated.

“Ivan’s daughter,” came a question from the other room and an older woman, still in fine physical shape walked in and turned to look Hailey over with interest as well.

“So they tell me,” Hailey muttered accepting the pie from Martya.

“Well, aren’t you just the cutest thing, but why aren’t you with Ivan dear,” Mama Koudelka asked.

“She’s still living with her mother who abandoned her for work. We found her roaming the streets,” Martya surmised around eating pie.

“Ok first of all, I was reconnoitering around Vorbarra Sultana and secondly, I would have found my way home,” Hailey declared hotly.

“eventually,” Kareen teased.

“Oh, is that why you’re wearing a disguise,” Da Koudelka asked.

“It is not a disguise, these are my regular clothes, which I should be able to wear without everyone assuming I am a boy,” Hailey declared even more heatedly.

“Maybe we should put you to bed, you’re getting kind of grouchy,” Kareen suggested.

Hailey huffed, “I should call Ivan and tell him to pick me up here tomorrow morning then… though I don’t have anything to wear for tomorrow anyway,” Hailey noted thoughtfully. She should have stayed home and done laundry she thought.

“You can borrow some of our stuff for the night and I’m sure Ivan can bring something. You mean Lady Alys hasn’t taken you out shopping for clothes yet?”

“No, and she hasn’t mentioned doing so in the future,” Hailey said.

Mama Drou frowned, “Well that doesn’t seem like her, I would have expected her to have bought you half the city’s fabrics by now.”

Perhaps she didn’t want to make the investment into a grandchild she didn’t plan to keep, Hailey thought. Perhaps Lady Alys had decided that Hailey just wasn’t up to Vor standards and she hoped that Hailey would quietly leave with Chel so Ivan could focus on raising proper Vor offspring. The conversation continued for a little while until Mama Koudelka took pity on Hailey and gave her a night gown and a bed.


	6. Brunch at Vorkosigan House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivan introduces his daughter to the Count and Countess Vorkosigan
> 
> Language and a line I stole from Dante's Inferno.
> 
> FYI In the play Medea the title character is being divorced by Jason (as in Jason of the Argonauts) so he can marry a pretty young princess. He also plans on taking their two children with him when he moves in with his new wife. Medea responds by murdering the children and the new bride and riding off into the sunset on a magic flying chariot.

Drou had left a message for Ivan last night on his commconsole. It stated that Hailey had ended up at their house and that he should bring her clothes. Ivan went to Chel’s apartment with great trepidation to grab some things for the kid but found it uninhabited. Using skills he pretended not to have and would vehemently deny if anyone asked him, Ivan opened the civilian door and went inside. There were papers spread out across the dining room table written in a language he thought might be Arabic, though he wasn’t sure. The room had a couch facing a holovid which was off. There were two bedrooms. Both equally utilitarian looking. Neither was decorated and things were still packed in bags, suggesting the occupants could leave at a moments notice. There were dresses and feminine things in the closet of one room and pants, hoodies and sweathsirts in the other. The second room was Hailey’s then, Ivan decided. Things were in a relative order in the room. At least it was not as messy as he’d seen from plenty of cadets at the service academy who had just moved out on their own. But she wasn’t a neat freak. A case of disks sat on the floor at the foot of her bed. Ivan only felt a twinge of guilt picking up some and looking through the pix. Some of them were of beautiful scenery taken from a decent vidscanner of mountains and rivers running through untouched forests and pictures of deserts from ground level and high up. There were bustling bazaars from several worlds and monuments of which Ivan could place only some. But then there were plenty of pictures of emaciated kids and adults, barren wastelands and destroyed cities. There were pictures of barbed wire fences and barracks for slave laborers. One was just a picture of words carved into stone in Italian, “Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here”. 

Ivan shivered, Chel made a living of going to these war torn places to report on them; to bring light and attention to atrocities. She had published several books highlighting problems in areas and forcing governments to change their policies or be publicly outed. And in that sense, despite how she behaved towards him, Ivan supposed she was an altruistic person. But it was so wrong of her to take a kid to these places. It was wrong of her that she’d taken his kid to these places. It was wrong that she had never bothered to tell Ivan about Hailey. He knew what it was like to grow up without a father and for his own child to go through that. Ivan liked to think he was a pretty easy going guy. Despite Miles driving him crazy, he didn’t snap much and he rolled with the punches, or ducked from the plasma fire, or hid from the crazies. But this made him angry.

Ivan put things back the way he found them and went to the closet to select some clothes. He took out a pair of nice looking pants, a shirt and a sweatshirt, because it was cold out. He paused by the underwear section. Usually Ivan had no problems with looking through women’s underwear, hell he relished it. But picking out underwear for his daughter was right up there with picking up underwear for his mother. Still, he pushed his squeamishness aside and did it. He grabbed the light blue pair with the cheerful looking whales. 

 

Ivan arrived a little while later at Koudelka house to be let in by a bouncing Kareen. “It's awful nice of you to offer us a ride over to Vorkosigan house Ivan,” Kareen said.

“Oh, um, sure,” Ivan said calculating fitting them all in the car. The back seat wasn’t very big on his sports car but well… Hailey wasn’t very big either and the other two could arm wrestle for the front passenger's seat. 

“Are Kou and Drou around,” Ivan asked looking around. Maybe he could ask Kou for some quick advice on raising a girl. 

“Naw they’re both at work already, not lounging about like a certain officer,” Kareen smirked.

“Hey! These are well earned personal days which I am using to spend with my daughter.”

Martya came out of the bathroom, still curling her hair, “Yeah ok, so is Hailey staying or what? And what’s her mother like,” Martya asked bluntly.

Ivan didn’t know the answer to the first question so he fielded the second, “she’s absolutely gorgeous with a tongue like a viper and the conscience of poison, sort of like you Martya.”

He narrowly dodged out of the way of a flying hair brush. 

 

Hailey woke up to Kareen standing over her mid-argument with Ivan.

“What do you mean? She’s your daughter you can wake her up. Don’t wimp out now Ivan,” Kareen declared teasingly. 

Ivan was standing over Hailey looking embarrassed as if he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to touch her to wake her up.

“What’s the matter,” Hailey asked sitting up and looking around. It took her a moment to remember why she was in this room. 

“Oh, I came to pick you up and we have to leave soon,” Ivan explained, “where did you get a neon pink night gown?”

Hailey scowled at Kareen who smiled angelically. 

She sighed and got up feeling rumpled and disoriented. More nightmares from last night. She was angry at herself because they weren’t even rational. It was the serial killer again, twice over. Each time she found herself in an enclosed structure, an underground garage, an abandoned fortress or space shuttle. She usually had some sort of small weapon of her own, a knife or hatchet. Everytime she knew that out there was one other person who was hellbent on killing her. She told herself that she would kill the killer first. . And yet, the further she traversed in her quest to hunt down the villain the more certain she was that she was doomed to fail. I’m going to find you and I’m going to kill you, she told herself. But she knew every single damn time that this was not going to end with her triumphant.

She got up and accepted the bag of clothes that Ivan proferred.

“Oh, you went by the apartment for me, that was very brave of you… was Chel there,” Hailey asked prepared to apologize for the trouble he’d gone through.

“Oh, no management let me in,” Ivan explained easily.

Huh, and did they usually do that she wondered. They do if you have the right connections she thought unsettled. 

“I don’t remember calling you last night to mention I was here. How did you know? Was it the minder,” Hailey asked.

“Minder? No, for the last – look he’s your perimeter guard, here to protect you and nothing else. And no, he only reports on dangerous things. Actually Kareen’s mama Drou called me,” Ivan explained.

“Right, sorry,” Hailey mumbled and went to go change.

 

The conversation continued when she got back though when Martya turned on her, “how could you be rude to your perimeter guard, he’s just watching out for you.”

“How can you say that? On Vivaria or Giansu or a host of other planets, if some government type is out following you, reporting on your whereabouts to who-knows-who nobody asks why you’re mad. Everyone understands that the central government is out to protect its own interests by spying on its citizens. And don’t tell me that just because I have nothing to hide means I shouldn’t worry. Don’t you worry about your privacy? Don’t you wonder about who watches the watchers,” Hailey responded. Hailey didn’t want to have this conversation now and she wished she’d been more tactful because the three now looked at her as if she were insane.

“Hate to break it to you baby Vorpatril but your family is composed of high ranking members of the government both past and present. You have become your own worst enemy,” Martya declared.

“That is not my name,” Hailey declared.

I don’t want to be part of your totalitarian state, Hailey silently added. Then thought of the young people from last night who were out dancing. They hadn’t been cowering in fear, they were dressed up like the vor, pretending to be them. Was it hatred or was it admiration, and how was Hailey to choose. If her mother had always chosen to work for the victim, the underdog, against any and every government to expose abuses then how could Hailey do anything less? Could you ever be comfortable as a member of the government, she wondered. She knew that governments were capable of excess, that they couldn’t be left alone, transparency was necessary and here in Barrayar there seemed to be little to none of that. People were just expected to trust in the Emperor and his council. 

But certainly there had to be some functional governments, she thought of Beta Colony, Escobar, and Nuevos Brasilia, which responded well to the needs of the people as far as she could tell. All government officials can’t be bad. And yet, and yet, Barrayar consistently suppressed the right to vote to a majority of its population, infanticide still occurred regularly here in parts and while homosexuality had recently been decriminalized it was still reason for a dishonorable discharge in the military. How could they pretend that everything was alright? Hailey knew that she was going to be having brunch with Ivan’s extended family today including his aunt and uncle and one of his cousins. Apparently the other one was away with his wife on Auditorial business. She almost stated that she didn’t want to go but realized that it probably didn’t matter to any of them what she wanted.

Hailey allowed herself to be herded to the car. The Koudelka sisters were looking at her funny now but conversation around her returned; it was stilted and forced around her as they drove. 

They got out and the Koudelka sisters headed off downstairs to the basement.

“They’re not coming with us,” Hailey asked numbly. 

“Naw, Midsummer Faire is coming up and they’re gearing up for a new marketing campaign for the butter bugs. Something to increase the demand so they can get a reason to hire more workers at their newly opened bug butter facility. About time they moved out of Vorkosigan house’s basement. They have been in a little over a year. But Enrique wouldn’t let Mark move the little suckers until he’d found the perfect home for them,” Ivan explained.

“Oh.”

“Hey, are you alright? You look really pale you’re not getting sick are you,” Ivan tried to touch her forehead but she jerked back.

“No, I’m fine,” she didn’t feel well but she didn’t think it was an immunological impairment that was causing the issue.

“You know my mother and Simon are going to be in there. My uncle Aral is only caustic towards smart ass teenage boys, but he’s really nice to girls and his grandson Nikki whose only a little younger than you. Then my aunt Cordelia the Countess, is a Betan so you don’t need to worry about her. Hell, Mark might even waddle up for a bit, that boy does like to eat. But no one wants to hurt you. I’m sure they’re not even going to ask you anything much about last night. I promise not to mention your late night exploring,” Ivan said.

Ivan started talking to her about the miniature dinosaur exhibit at the Vorbarra Sultana zoo. As they entered the dining hall both Illyan and a white haired man in a brown uniform stood. She tried not to gape and wonder if it was the same one from last night who was doing shots off a young woman. No, of course not she told herself, that boy had dyed his hair white, this man was the real deal. 

“Lord Ivan Vorpatril and Mademoiselle Hailey Vorpatril,” one of the armsmen called.

“Mujica,” Hailey corrected automatically. The armsman winced, embarrassed but did not go back to correct himself.

“Milady, Milord, Lady Alys, Sir,” the armsman bowed himself out and Hailey and Ivan went over to their spots.

“My uncle Aral,” Ivan nodded to the white haired man who extended his hand to Hailey. They shook hands and he smiled at her, “I’ve heard such interesting things about you.” 

“Oh, that’s nice. Ivan assured me that you didn’t usually eat babies, sir,” Hailey offered.

“You weren’t supposed to tell him that,” Ivan muttered.

The Butcher of Komarr’s lips twitched up into a smile at, “I have become a boogeyman of sorts, a side effect of my work on Komarr I suppose. I can still scare Ivan into hiding in a closet with the right growl.”

“I told you, that was reconnaissance,” Ivan hissed.

“I thought he was hiding there because of Lady Georgina Vorsmythe,” Illyan put in.

Lady Alys sighed in disgust, “a perfectly nice girl.”

Hailey sat down and finally looked at the object on her plate, a crumpled pack of “Starlites”. Well and she’d thought only Chel could stab someone in the front with a smile. But Hailey had been wrong before.

“I do understand that sometimes teenagers get the brilliant idea to go adventuring on their own. But next time it would be wiser if you took a native guide,” Lady Alys instructed, “if you wanted to go out so badly I’m sure Ivan or Simon or I would have taken you or I could have gotten Christos to go along.”

“Did you find what you were looking for,” the Countess asked.

“I found out that I shouldn’t take up chain smoking,” Hailey offered.

And if I’d taken one of your people would I have seen the same things, Hailey wondered. Would it have been like Giansu all over again, with a minder present to make sure the visitors only saw what fearless leader wanted them to see? But I wanted to see things from every angle, Hailey silently protested. 

“I really don’t think running off into the middle of the night was necessary to figure that out dear,” Lady Alys noted.

“Does Chel have a minder too,” Hailey asked, “does that ever bother you, having some guy following you around cataloging your every action?”

Illyan snorted, “A minder? But are you comparing our Impsec man to your time on Giansu? I assure you we’re not nearly so totalitarian as that. We would need to hire more people just to sift through all of the useless data that would produce. What we have is bad enough already. No, they would only report on something downright criminal such as murder or treason and only to the chief of Impsec. Their main job is to protect you; which yours did well I might add, turning away several possibly dangerous elements.”

How odd that even in her perceived freedom her potential contacts had been pre-vetted before she even saw them, Hailey thought. 

“Don’t worry dear, the peculiarity of having strange men follow you around will eventually become normal,” Countess Vorkosigan promised, “It’s merely a Barrayaran Vor custom. One which is no stranger than any of the others, I assure you. If it would make you feel better I can give you my anthropology notes on the culture here later.”

The Count’s smiled at his wife, “you did take to it like an amphibious assault vehicle to water, Dear Captain.”

“I don’t think we’ve actually discussed my staying long enough to get used to anything,” Hailey noted.

“Well and did you want to discuss it now? I had hoped to… well I have already set up a court appointment for a custody hearing with your mother over you. I do think you would have a more suitable home environment here than following your mother on her journeys,” Lady Alys stated.

“So…were we going to discuss this before or after your judge made his ruling,” Hailey asked, “and how do you even know this is going to be the right decision a year or even a few months down the line. Hell, Ivan can’t even keep a girlfriend.”

“Hey! That’s different with family,” Ivan declared heatedly, “my mother makes me crazy all the time, that doesn’t mean I would dump her or trade her in.” He then paused, considered his words, and refused to turn around to look at his mother. 

Lady Alys sighed, “thank you Ivan, and I would never trade you in for a dog. Though I’ve been sorely tempted at points.”

“That's too bad, the dog would at least be trainable,” Lord Mark stated ambling in with the Koudelka sisters in tow.

“Has Ma Kosti set out the food yet,” Martya asked.

“Shortly, I hope,” the Countess murmured.

“But Hailey, living with your mother can’t be good for you. Look at the way she consistently puts her needs ahead of yours, just like the other night,” Lady Alys pointed out. “I thought that your impsec minders don’t report on people’s activities unless they’re criminal,” Hailey noted angrily.

“But you’re a child, I only want to look after my only granddaughter,” Lady Alys explained.

This is Ivan all over again, Cordelia muttered to Aral who only nodded but did not interject.

“But don’t you realize how weird this is? You’re not just looking after me it’s like you’re spying on me. It’s like I don’t have control over anything anymore. This whole crazy aristocracy isn’t normal!”

“Warrior caste,” Ivan corrected.

“It doesn’t matter what you call it it’s still a bullshitocracy,” Hailey shouted.

Then Hailey realized she was standing and she probably shouldn’t have yelled that and it really was too late to sit back down. So she just quietly left the table and decided she might want to just go home and lie down for a while. Except the armsman Pym wouldn’t open the commlocked door to let her leave with what remained of her dignity.

Hailey ended up skulking in the basement until she found Enrique still downstairs with the butter-bugs. He didn’t question her presence downstairs but began talking about packing up the girls for their ride soon. 

She let him natter on and sat down on the floor feeling incredibly tired.

Ivan had stood up and was about to follow Hailey when the Countess motioned him back to his seat, “I would let her cool down before looking for her. The armsmen know not to let her out of the house. She will be fine.”

“First time anyone’s referred to the vor culture as that,” the Count grimaced and took a sip of coffee. 

“Mmm a very crude albeit accurate description in some ways,” the Countess murmured.

Lady Alys sighed, “Oh, Cordelia can we not have another discussion of your personal views of Vor culture right now?”

“Did you want to discuss your parenting style instead,” the Countess asked patiently.

“I would like to understand why her response to my interest in her led to this display and subsequent walk out,” Lady Alys noted hotly.

And Ivan’s past behavior, the Countess added silently but didn't say. Instead she asked a different question, “I still have yet to meet Chel but it seems she is manipulative, correct?”

“Madame Mujica's performance the first night was impressive. She walked in and knew how to play her audience to get what she wanted. No hesitation or any indications of being conflicted. She knew her goal and went for it. If I’d thought she would serve the Imperium I would have recommended her for a job as a deep cover agent,” Illyan surmised grimly. 

“And Chel works for Amnesty. You did pass along her CV so I know she has spent her time planet hopping between war torn worlds. I assume she takes Hailey with her rather than leaving Hailey with any relatives,” the Countess asked.

“Correct, Chel Mujica has been to Vivaria where she met her first husband, Giansu, Frost II, Mihasen, Pennmen where she met her second husband, Xamandu during the Kthaman war crime trials, Djao-wu and XinAn where she met her third husband. There were a host of other planets but she was only listed there for two to three weeks so I won’t include that list. I can’t remember it like I used to anyway,” Illyan grimaced in frustration but continued, “though this past year she was on Pol station and Escobar, both relatively stable planets.”

“Present as a reporter or was she involved in more,” The Count asked.

“She was charged with collaborating in anti-government or terrorist activity on Vivaria, Frost II, and Xinjia though never formally charged for various reasons. Her role within Amnesty has protected her to some degree,” Illyan surmised.

“Considering that Chel is Hailey's main role model that certainly explains the conflict Hailey is feeling towards Barrayar. It's similar to Mark’s when he first arrived,” the Countess smiled over at her second son who was in the middle of ingesting food.

“I admit that Chel is unstable. But she is no Ser Galen,” Illyan declared, “Compared to the rest of her family she’s a saint. One brother’s in jail for multiple homicide and the other one is a drug addict out on probation for peddling child pornography.”

“Mm, no Chel doesn’t have a focused enemy the way Ser Galen did but if she is as anti-government as you claim I’m certain some of that has rubbed off on Hailey. They have been together so many years with Chel as the adult authority figure, how could it not? Also note that Chel has taken Hailey to a variety of planets in which the government is dysfunctional and despotic. Clearly this would further emphasize Hailey's fear and mistrust of the government and its branches. Chel, being her only constant in all of this turmoil has also solidified their bond. Hailey has explicitly stated she doesn’t approve of the obtrusive government around her. She also explicitly stated that she doesn’t trust that anyone but Chel will stay.”

“She also doesn’t respond well to physical affection,” Kareen noted.

“Like a feral kitten,” Martya added. 

 

The others were still upstairs at the dining room table but Mark had excused himself with a plate in hand. He wandered into the basement at armsman Jankowski’s suggestion. Cool it Gorge, he told the other, this food isn’t for you, you had plenty upstairs and you’ll have plenty later. He wasn’t very good at being human still, but the kid was probably hungry. That and he was profoundly grateful to Hailey that she’d distracted everyone enough that Lady Alys hadn’t even mentioned that time he kidnapped Ivan. Hell, even Ivan had forgiven him by now, or just stopped bringing it up anyway. But Ivan’s mother was still on Mark’s case about it, though she had softened somewhat towards him since he got here.

 

Well, and how was this going to play out, Hailey wondered. Ivan was probably eating now, he had to build up strength for when he came down here with a belt. She wondered vaguely how physical discipline was meted out here on Barrayar. She expected that shouting profanities at a table full of high ranking individuals, family members no less required Ivan to perform such discipline. Hell if she’d ever done that with Chel and her superiors Chel would certainly have gone ballistic. Comparing their physiques and the fact that men naturally had more upper body strength than women Hailey just hoped it would be brief. Perhaps I should be finding a way out instead of focusing on this, she thought. But even if she got out of the house where would she go? Back to the apartment where they could find her? Back to the shuttleport where they would find her? Out on the street where they would definitely find her?

“Yeah, I was reading some old studies about it and they used to play classical music for cows to get them to produce more milk,” Hailey mentioned to Enrique who was still talking about his bugs to her. 

She wanted to be alone and yet she didn’t want that so she sat there while the distracted scientist went about his work.

“Do you know the molecular mechanism to explain this difference,” Enrique asked.

“I’m sure you could look it up,” Hailey said. 

Hailey had read the autobiography of a Vivarian revolutionary who had argued that people who gave in willingly and were the meekest were the most likely to be victimized. It wasn’t about winning the fight. It was about making it as painful as possible for the aggressor such that even if he won he wouldn’t want to challenge her again. Yeah, or he would just beat her worse, Hailey thought. She was jittery from the adrenaline, maybe if she went upstairs it wouldn’t be so bad as if he had to come find her.

A figure did appear in the doorway making her heart race. but he was too short to be Ivan, and dressed in colors that weren’t quite black. 

Enrique turned around, “has Ma Kosti made breakfast already,” he asked looking down at the plate in Mark’s hand. 

“Yeah, there should be plenty of food left upstairs,” Mark said guarding the plate he was holding.

Enrique decamped without a word back to her. Talk about a fair weather friend, she thought.

“You look like hell,” the little man observed.

She shrugged, was he going to mock her, she wondered. Maybe she should just go up and see what Ivan would do, she hated waiting for punishment. Would Chel say anything about the bruises? Likely she would just comment on how lucky Hailey was to have her.

“Uh, I brought you this,” he said uncomfortably, offering her the plate. 

She wasn’t hungry now, she was preoccupied, but if Mark was going to be nice she wasn’t going to slap him down for it.

“Thank you,” she said reaching up and taking it from him.

A silence settled.

“Are they very upset,” Hailey asked finally.

Mark snorted, “trust me I arrived here under much worse conditions, swearing at the table hardly registers with them.”

“Arrived here? I thought you were the Count and Countess’s son, weren’t you born here,” Hailey asked in confusion.

“It’s a complicated story,” Mark noted looking her over, searching? He must have found her wanting as he did not continue.

Hailey who understood that sometimes pain was difficult to articulate did not press the subject.

“Have you worked with Enrique for very long. He’s not Barrayaran is he,” she asked.

“We met about 2 years ago on Escobar when he agreed to come work for me. He has also done much worse things than swearing at the table.”

“Ah,” she was silent, dare you ask the question, “...I’m not trying to be rude. Does it bother you that your father is,” a homicidal maniac known as the Butcher of Komarr, seemed too one sided, exaggerated, convoluted, “the way he is.”

Mark began to answer the question, stopped, started, and considered, “I started out with a lot of twisted facts, to find he was less scary than I initially believed has put things in a different perspective.”

A silence.

“How is Ivan doing on the father thing,” Mark asked.

Hailey shrugged, “I guess it’s the same. It’s like my mother’s been telling me all these facts about him for years and now I’m meeting him and he isn’t at all what I thought he’d be like… it’s confusing.”

“Yeah I know that feeling,” Mark muttered.

Ivan wandered in at this point muttering something about Vorkosigan house being a warren while also holding a plate of food. 

“Oh, there you are… I had thought… but Mark beat me to it? Here I hadn’t even thought...huh.”

“Thought I was going to stuff my face on seconds,” Mark asked acerbically.

Ivan shrugged and may have muttered, "you’ve done it before", but Mark didn’t ask him to repeat it any louder.

Ivan didn’t ask her to explain her actions, to talk about her feelings or to apologize to anyone. In fact he didn’t bring up the incident upstairs at all, except to say, “you know m’ mother makes me crazy too.”

He did magnanimously help her finish the second plate of food. They said rapid fair wells to the adults upstairs who also politely did not bring up any swearing at the table and then she and Ivan did head out to see the miniature dinosaurs. She even got to feed the tiny t-rex dinosaurs some protein cubes. Ivan became very antsy during this event and insisted that she might want to feed the herbivores instead.

“I mean they aren't trained to eat live meat but with the sharp teeth it might take a finger,” he mother-henned. 

Things went well until he drove her back to the apartment.

“Thanks, Vorpatril,” she said getting out.

Only he got out too.

“You know you don’t have to come up,” Hailey said.

“Yeah… but I think the letter from the district court has been delivered today,” Ivan said, the first time he’d mentioned the custody hearing since that morning. Afraid she might go Medea, Hailey wondered. Hailey didn’t think her mother was that desperate.

They went up, Ivan with a great deal of apprehension took the key card from Hailey, opened the door and entered first.

“Hey Chel, oh good you got the letter,” Ivan said cheerfully, “see my mother was thinking that you work so hard and all that having a kid around was just a hassle and-“

“Who do you think you are,” Chel asked angrily. She had a large knife in her hand, Hailey noted coming in behind Ivan. Of course she also had a cutting board out and had obviously been slicing vegetables on the counter. Chel had the official paper summons from the court out on the small dining room table. It was perfectly pristine with all the appropriate seals and signatures on it.

“Oh come on, let’s not be violent in front of the kid,” Ivan cajoled.

Chel raised an eyebrow, “you meant to steal my only child away from me with your crooked court systems and to top it off you set the date so soon there’s no way I can get a non-Barrayaran lawyer. Then you ask me to be civilized?”

“Er, it was my mother’s idea,” Ivan offered, not said but implicit in this was his phrase ‘it’s not my fault’.

Chel ground her teeth then turned from Ivan to Hailey, “and how long did you know about this.”

“Just this morning,” Hailey said.

“And you didn’t call me immediately,” Chel demanded, visibly hurt.

“I didn’t think,” Hailey began.

“No, you didn’t think and you haven’t been thinking since we got here. I have to do that for the both of us, every, single, time. Did you know that Count Vorrinis wife just died?”

“Um, no,” Hailey said in confusion.

“Hm, and did you know that the legal minimum age for marriage on Barrayar is sixteen,” Chel asked.

“Only with parental consent,” Ivan argued, then blinked.

“Exactly, and doesn’t Vorrinis own a few buildings here in the capital? It would certainly be nice for Ivan's mother if she could collect a few more buildings for her personal collection. You know a building mogul is never satisfied with just a few buildings,” Chel noted.

“But Count Vorinnis is almost seventy years old, I’m not going to marry Hailey off to him if that’s what you’re suggesting,” Ivan stated.

“Oh, that’s nice that Ivan cares so much… of course he’s clearly not in charge of his own family. That’s his mother and her lover’s job. Ivan just obeys. Now tell me, Simon Illyan is a former security chief of Imperial Security, you think he hasn’t made tough decisions over the years to scrap an asset rather than go in and save him? You think he wouldn’t trade a person, you for example, for something better? How much are you worth to that family,” Chel asked Hailey.

“Hey, we don’t sell people in my family and we don’t trade them like chattel,” Ivan declared.

“Hailey, honey, I know you hate me and you want to believe that Ivan and his family love you; which they might, in a pitying sort of way. But if they really respected your thoughts and opinions why did they only tell you about this custody hearing today? Shouldn’t they have asked you about this before submitting this request,” Chel asked.

“But how can Hailey be expected to say she wants to live with someone else when you’re right here looming over her? The kid needs some space,” Ivan advised.

“First they’ll want custody over you then they can do whatever they want. Lady Alys will throw out all of your pants and you’ll be wearing dresses or nothing at all. Then she’ll find you a suitable husband and you’ll have to marry him. Pretty soon you’ll be pregnant and you won’t even have a chance to go to college. Hailey, I just want to save you from this,” Chel explained, putting down the knife and coming over to hug her.

“Look, I don’t know where you got this from but we don’t marry people against their will…anymore and I wouldn’t make her skip out on college,” Ivan insisted.

Chel already had her arms wrapped around a stiffened Hailey. She smiled up at Ivan over Hailey’s shoulder, “you can go now Captain Vorpatril. I think I’ve had enough of you for one night.”

Ivan stayed, “Hailey, if you want to you can come home with me.”

“No, she can’t, you’re little stamped paper states there will be a custody hearing, and it hasn’t been decided in your favor yet. If you take her I will report this to my organization, to the local police and to the news stations both local and galactic that you’ve kidnapped her,” Chel said sweetly, her arms still tightly wrapper around the girl.

“No. It’s fine, I wasn’t going to go with him anyway,” Hailey said firmly removing herself from under her mother’s grasp, “I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere. You can go now Vorpatril,” she waved him off without turning to look at him. 

Ivan turned to walk away, stopped, “you know you don’t have to do this.”

Ivan, you have no idea what kind of trouble that would cause, Hailey thought, “It’s what I want.”

Ivan stayed, “well… I’ll pick you up tomorrow?”

“No,” Chel said, “you’ve taken her out plenty this week and last week. I’m her mother, I want to spend time with her.”

“But-“ Ivan began.

“But nothing, you Vor type can’t always get what you want, other people have needs too. I need to spend time with my daughter, you can’t get in the way of that,” Chel announced.

Ivan stayed, he didn’t say anything and Chel coolly stared him down. Finally after several long, painful minutes he left.

“That man is insufferable,” Chel noted going back to chopping vegetables, “well what lies did he fill you with today? He didn’t tell you he loved you did he?”

“No,” Hailey said slumping down unto the couch and turning up the news. 

It was all about Midsummer Faire coming up, no time for serious news on the Barrayaran channels. The Betan one was covering the current peace negotiations between the Cetagandans and the Illyricans. It didn’t help that the Illyricans were said to be stealing genetic blueprints from the Cetagandans to improve their biokinetic software.


	7. Reminiscing and moving forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hailey is given information on Simon Illyan's work in ImpSec and remembers the death of Enrico.
> 
> WARNING: prisoner torture, firing squad, original male character death

It became more clear why Chel had made this demand the next day when she brought Hailey out to the home of one of Amnesty’s local heads. He was a tall thin white man, bald on the top of his head with some hair clinging close to the sides. His eyes were watery and blue. He offered her a faint smile and a firm handshake. Other members were also present for the party. It was a celebration to honor Chel’s upcoming interview with Emperor Gregor. 

“You know your mother’s really amazing, you’re so lucky to have her,” one of the younger men named Nicolas noted admiring her at a distance from his spot by the punch bowl. “Yes… did she tell you about her interview with the dictator Hyuk Kyul,” Hailey asked.

“God, I couldn’t imagine how terrifying it would be to enter his palace and ask him those questions the way she did,” another young man stated, his name was Charles.

“Yeah, that she exposed those prison camps and the illegal organ harvesting was almost surreal,” Nicolas said.

Chel hadn’t taken Hailey for those night visits. Hailey didn’t know if that was for her protection or because Chel thought Hailey would slow them down. Chel hadn’t offered Hailey any protection or set up any escape plans in case Chel had been caught and executed though. They probably would have come for me right after they finished with you, Hailey had thought then. Albeit the way a young child thought of things, with the hope that things would still work out happily in the end. That had been knocked out of her, there were plenty of examples of perfectly good people being murdered for no reason, Hailey thought. 

“The interview with Mogubi was breathtaking,” Charles said.

“Did your mother say for sure that she would leave after this interview? I would think there would be plenty more people to interview here who had committed war crimes. Hell the Butcher of Komarr is practically up the block,” a new young man said walking up. 

Yes, this group was devoted to studying government function here, particularly its lack of transparency. They’d recently gotten information from a government leak about comm tapping of Komarran citizens on-planet in government jobs. Particularly Komarrans who were up for promotions in the military. It had been found that their Barrayaran counterparts did not receive the same vetting. This had caused a minor scandal as galactics pointed out that Gregor claimed to be attempting to integrate Komarrans as Barrayaran subjects while setting up different rules for them. On another front, further demands for his comments on the continued killing of “mutant” children in the backwoods were greeted with a polite statement from His press secretary that He did not support these actions and the local police forces were present to prevent it. 

“That former chief of Imperial Security is still wandering around too. He definitely needs an interview. Did you know he was on the same ship as that war criminal Prince Serg during the aborted Escobar invasion? Damn but he must have some disturbing skeletons in his closet,” Nicolas said.

“Oh, that is an interesting thought, don’t you have any of that data compiled on Simon Illyan,” Chel asked walking up.

Chel smiled at Nicolas who grinned foolishly back, “yes of course, I can get it for you later,” he promised.

“Or right now,” she said, still smiling.

“Oh, sure of course, I’ll be right back,” the young man put his drink down and walked out of the building abruptly, he said something to the host at the door and that was all.

About half an hour later Nicolas returned with several data disks which he gave to Chel.

“Thank you,” Chel accepted them with a smile.

At the end of the party when everyone was saying their good nights Chel handed the disks to Hailey, “maybe you want to read up on Ivan’s stepfather since you’re planning on spending a lot of time with him.”

Hailey did.

 

It was not that she ever forgot about her meeting with Enrico in one of Vivaria’s secret prisons, known as Cristo palazzio. But she had been thinking of him a great deal lately. Hailey did not remember when her mother had left her to foster with the Cicero’s but many of her earliest memories had been with them. In fact, the day a severe but beautiful red headed woman dressed in a firm but feminine black business suit arrived Hailey didn’t know what to make of it. Chel was likely already in mourning then, aware of what was going to happen. But she didn’t explain herself when she arrived.

Lucia, the woman who wasn’t Hailey’s biological mother but had been her mother for the past five and a half years had called her into the kitchen.

“Hailey, honey come here, come say hello to your mama,” Lucia had said.

Lucia had been big and boisterous with five rowdy children of her own. She had been a champion weightlifter in the professional games on Vivaria before the stadium had been shut down to prevent insurrectionists from meeting. That being said, there were few arrests in the small town far from the capital and the overt warring. It was relatively peaceful. Even Mr. Cicero came home from work on time every night. He had yet to be “firmly questioned” by the police or worse, forced to disappear. They heard of things like that happening in the larger cities. But residents were confident it wouldn’t happen in there small town.

The red headed woman had her hair braided back and away from her face, it was professional and controlled. “I have new clothes for you, you will dress and we will go see your father,” Chel stated firmly. Hailey had taken the black dress and stockings and gone to put them on obediently, even then she’d been a quiet girl. Lucia must have tried to correct Chel’s cold attitude because Hailey heard them fighting outside as she dressed. 

“You want to coddle her in the middle of a fucking war,” Chel had yelled.

Hailey had been surprised that the woman would swear in the house. When Vittorio, Lucia’s oldest boy had said that word in the house his mother had made him sit for an hour with a bar of soup in his mouth. Mama Lucia had said that she was going to clean his mouth so he didn't say such dirty words.

Lucia did not do the same with Chel, she kept her voice low so Hailey only heard Chel’s responses.

Hailey stepped out of the room she shared with Lucia's youngest daughter, Maria. This didn’t stop Chel the way it did Lucia.

“Hailey will be with her mother, isn’t that enough for you or do you want to take her away from me too? It’s fine everything else has been ripped from me,” Chel declared breaking down into tears.

Hailey knew the loud sobbing of children who had scrapped their knees or fallen out of trees while climbing or had been involved in any number of childhood accidents. Usually there was an adult there to fix the problem. Even when Hailey had gotten up to get water in the one night before going back to bed she had heard mama Lucia crying. The woman had broken down while listening to the news about the most recent bombings off in Lasura and the idea that her boys might be drafted if the war dragged on. But at least Mr Cicero had been there to comfort her. Chel’s despair was such that even Lucia had nothing to say to her. Mama Lucia merely hugged Hailey and told her to be a good girl for her mother.

Hailey got into a car with Chel and they drove for an hour to a military shuttle port where Chel flashed an ID to get unto the base. From there a young officer waited for them. He identified them easily as they were the only civilians in the building.

He was curious about where they were from and friendly as they got into his light flyer. Chel was brusque and shut him down quickly.

“Jeez, you get permission to see your husband before they execute him, something denied to 99% of the population and you still act like an ungrateful bitch,” the young officer scowled at her.

“Well maybe you fascist bastards should let the rest of the population in to see their loved ones before you murder them,” Chel had snapped.

“Hey I know about you, you think just because you have a kid with you you’ll slip on through with that attitude?”

“No, I know I will get through this by force, you cowards are afraid of your crimes being exposed to the UGF and I have the means to do it so you will do exactly as you’re told,” Chel responded firmly. “Yeah well there aren’t any vidscanners in here for you to use,” the officer threatened. Chel snorted, “nor do there need to be since you’re not a real man. You're nowhere near the front lines where the actual danger is. You go home every night to your safe little barracks where they feed you to satiety. That uniform you wear is a costume, you don’t deserve to wear it.” The officer sat back in his chair. Hailey could feel the rage in the cabin and wondered where all the sane adults had gone. She felt this was vaguely unfair since she was only six and there ought to be someone to deal with this. “I can set this thing to autopilot and come deal with you if I wanted to,” the officer said, they were flying over a large body of water now. Chel snorted, “you’re not brave enough for that. You like your comfortable job and while you don’t think you’ll be punished for attacking me you’re not completely sure. So you loudly threaten even as you quietly retreat.” “It’s just your words against mine. I could say you got hysterical and attacked me,” the officer suggested. “And hers,” Chel turned to look down at Hailey, the officer glanced at her as well.Hailey tried to shrink back in her seat. The officer didn’t say anything more, but pursed his lips and held himself tightly.

When they landed and everyone decamped he caught Chel’s arm, “you know one day someone’s not going to care that you have a little kid with you and then you’re going to be sorry.”

“Get away from me,” Chel stated firmly. She stared the officer in the eye and spoke in a cool, collected tone. 

 

After they had landed within the high barbed wire and domed base they were picked up by another officer escorted towards one of the buildings. There was no way in or out without the explicit permission of the people who ran this base. Hailey noted the forms on the watchtower and then turned to stare at the building that was shaped like a castle. It even had a turret and looked like something out of medieval earth. Hailey thought this was very exciting. Until they got inside. While the outside looked like something out of a story book, if one ignored the generators constantly running to power the electrodomes which kept out unwanted aircrafts, and the barbed wire fences of course. The white walls of the interior were peeling back, recoiling in horror or perhaps simply disrepair to reveal red brick underneath. They passed through metal door after metal door to reach the room finally, a cell only marked as 225. The guard opened the cell door with a special card she kept around her neck and stood back to allow Chel in. This guard who had introduced herself as Captain Julia Xavier had not spoken to them after asking them to follow her. She had ignored Chel’s questions, demands and ridicule and did not enter the cell. She merely stepped aside to allow Hailey and Chel in. She remained off to the side and made no comment. The room inside, Hailey later realized was not Enrico’s actual prison cell but had been a cleaned up interrogation room with only a metal table and folding chairs. It was never clear whether this was done for the benefit of Chel or to free up space for the newest prisoners. Enrico never returned to that cell after he was removed. Enrico had been a handsome man once, but times were difficult and the People's army's supply of fast penta ran short. With other military supplies eventually being purchased off planet due to the disruption of manufacturing on planet caused by this ten year civil war, fast penta was considered a luxury. So the brave men and women of the People's armies would merely have to gain information from their enemy just as their old earth ancestor’s had, through torture. Hailey was not prepared for this and became hysterical when she saw Enrico’s disfigured face. Chel had slapped her. Enrico had tried to get up but was jerked back down by the physical chains holding him to the table.

He rubbed what remained of his face with his fingerless hand, “Chel, mi bella why did you bring the baby girl? Go put her outside on the bench.”

Chel had glared down at Hailey as if she were the worst person in the world, “I had thought she would want to see a hero.”

Enrico gave a laugh that turned into a sob, “trust me you want that you take her to Wonderworld. There’s no one by that description in here.”

Hailey was uncomfortable now. She saw the way tears glistened in his eye and she felt guilty at having made him feel bad. Hailey thought to say something but Chel opened the door and escorted her to a simple, solid bench just outside the room. Chel left her there with only the instruction to sit still and not wander off.

So Hailey sat there for some time with only the silent presence of Captain Xavier as company. Eventually another officer came by, one dressed sharply in dark green who smiled and saluted Captain Xavier before noticing the little girl.

“And what are you doing in a place like this little miss,” He asked kneeling down so they were eye level. 

Hailey wasn’t sure if she was allowed to talk to strangers. But he was in uniform and her kindergarten teacher had told her it was safe to talk to men in uniform. So maybe it was ok, Hailey thought. She did not think that her teacher's leanings towards the People's party meant anything at the age of six. 

“I’m waiting for my mother and father,” Hailey explained. Chel had told her Enrico was her father, the truth would come later.

The man raised an eyebrow and smiled in amusement when he saw the readout of who was present in the room, “Enrico Massimo is your daddy? Hmm you seem a little too light skinned for him,” he noted looking at Captain Xavier who blinked a response. He then turned back to Hailey, “And your mommy brought you into this cold dark place to see him? This isn’t a place for pretty little girls like you.”

Hailey blinked back, “She said she wanted me to see a hero.”

The man snorted, “you won’t find any here in these prison cells.” He got up and sat down on the bench next to her, “I used to fight on the front back when those bad men were actually fighting as a unified army. Now they just hide in cities and take potshots at our men or plant bombs in our office buildings and schools without thought to protecting kids. I can’t do much about it out there though. I took plasma arc fire to the left arm and leg, they’re mechanical now,” he rolled up his sleeve to show her the shiny surface of the arm.

“That’s awful,” Hailey said.

“You know I haven’t seen my little girls these past three years, there’s too much work to be done. I can’t be spared. After getting fixed up they assigned me here to deal with these bas- bad men. I have to protect my children and everyone else’s and it’s hard work,“ the man explained. 

Hailey looked the man over, his dark black hair was parted carefully to the side on his scalp. He looked well put together and completely incongruous with the environment around him. At the time she thought him rather handsome, a veritable prince charming. She reflected on this with shame later.

“Most fathers talk all about their boys, but me? I love having little girls, would you like to see some pictures,” the man asked, he was already taking them out. 

Hailey nodded.

The man spent time talking about the serious, studious older daughter Sophia and the feisty younger one Isabella. 

“You look so much like Sophia when she was younger,” the man who eventually identified himself as Commander Gerhardt Firenze said. 

He patted her on the head and offered her candy which he had in his pockets. It had been a long time since Hailey had chocolate so she was careful to eat it slowly. While Hailey was finishing it the interrogation room suddenly swung open and Chel stepped out, shock and instant hatred crossed her face.

“You,” she scowled.

“Madam, I was the one who permitted you to see your husband before the execution do not propose to take that tone with me,” Firenze said dangerously.

“I will take whatever tone I wish with a butcher and a torturer. How dare you sit calmly with my daughter with all of that blood on your hands.”

“Chel,” Enrico called from the room, he could not get up to intervene, “let him be. Our time together is so short. don’t get distracted.”

“For once Massimo has made a worthwhile statement,” Firenze claimed.

“As opposed to you who have done nothing but destroy people’s lives,” Chel stated staunchly.

Firenze did not like this, “you know your stay here could be extended,” he smiled at her, mercilessly.

“I’m sorry sir, I don’t really like it here. There might be ghosts,” Hailey said nervously.

Firenze looked down at her and sighed. He glared back at Chel, “That was dirty of you to bring the little girl,” he said, then turned to Hailey, “come here sweetheart. Come give a real hero a kiss and all will be forgotten,” he bent down and turned his cheek to her.

Hailey glanced among the adults and understood that they were angry with each other. But she didn’t know how to fix the problem though she wanted to. She wanted things to be alright and so she moved over to Firenze. Chel didn’t stop Hailey as she kissed him on the cheek which was starting to get bristly with five o'clock shadow. 

He sighed and looked down at her, “you look just like my Sophia when she was your age. If your mommy isn’t nice to you come find me. I would be happy if you went to live with my family in the north,” he promised then got up.

Firenze spoke to Chel, “you’re little girl is very sweet despite your influence on her. Should you cause trouble I would be glad to step in and send her to a family with plenty of moral backbone.

Chel scowled and said nothing as he turned and walked away.

Chel grabbed her and pulled her back into the room before she slapped Hailey again, “do you have any idea who that man was? That’s the man who did this to Enrico and you, you kissed him!”

“I was trying to help,” Hailey was crying again. If her mother hadn’t wanted Hailey to do that why hadn’t her mother stopped her?

Enrico sighed, “come here little one.”

Hailey snuffled and moved over to Enrico. She had decided that even if he looked scary she should be nice to him because he spoke very gently to her.

He patted her on the head very gently and wiped away the tears with his good hand, the one that still had some fingers.

“Sh, sh, your mother is under a lot of stress. This is very difficult for her. But she shouldn’t hit you,” Enrico said this looking at Chel.

Hailey sniffled and looked up at Enrico’s face, one of the eyes was still present while the other socket held nothing.

“Why did that man do this to you?”

Enrico sighed, “It’s very complicated sweetheart.”

“Because he thinks he’s right and he supports a despotic regime. His death would be certain if they ever allowed even the possibility of reform,” Chel surmised.

“Are you going to be okay? Should we take you to a doctor,” Hailey asked Enrico.

Enrico put a hand to his face and looked up at Chel, “why did you do this to me,” he asked in a choked voice.

Chel’s face crumpled, “God I don’t know, honestly I never meant to hurt you. If I’d known sooner I would have-“

“Sh, no that’s been forgiven… I was stupid to have divorced you I know with the threat of death or torture at every turn we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. A single indiscretion shouldn’t have been the end all be all of a marriage like ours. Though if we had stayed married,” Enrico shook his head, “I don’t know what I would have done if you’d been imprisoned too. That, that would have driven me mad.”

The door opened and Captain Xavier spoke her second sentence of the day, “It’s time to go.”

“You will look after our daughter won’t you,” Enrico asked Chel meaningfully.

Chel breathed unevenly, “of course,” she croaked.

Captian Xavier undid the bonds holding Enrico to the chair. She professionally shooed Hailey back towards her mother.

“It was a pleasure meeting you Hailey, I’m sorry we didn’t have more time together,” Enrico said as Xavier and two more soldiers hustled him out. 

Chel led Hailey out to the barren yard behind the prison where Firenze stood casually chatting with a few soldiers. Firenze looked coolly over at Chel then his gaze lowered to Hailey. He glared and separated himself to walk rapidly over to them as Chel led Hailey over towards him.

“What are you doing,” he demanded.

“I have been given permission to watch the death of my husband from your superiors, to be a witness to your humane methods,” Chel explained calmly, “certainly you were informed.”

“I didn’t think you would bring the child. How can you do this to her,” Firenze demanded.

“Do what? You’re the one who is murdering a man you’ve brutally tortured for months. Any information you could get you’ve forced out of him and now you’re throwing him away like garbage since he isn’t useful anymore.”

“This man killed 120 people and was probably involved in several assassinations,” Firenze declared through clenched teeth.

“He started out as a poet and idealist. That he was forced to turn to violence when other methods only got his people killed in droves was a matter of conscience. If he could have found a way to reform your corrupt system through peace and diplomacy I promise he would have.”

Out from a side exit a man with a bag on his head limped out surrounded by guards including Captain Xavier.

“Why does my father have a bag on his head,” Hailey asked.

“So the murderers don’t have to look him in the eye when they pull the trigger,” Chel explained sweetly, looking into the eyes of Firenze.

Hailey looked up at Firenze for confirmation.

“It’s so he doesn’t get scared. He’s a very bad man and he needs to be taught a lesson. But we’re humane,” Firenze explained uneasily.

“But… how can he learn anything if he’s dead? Are you going to cryo-revive him,” Hailey asked, concerned.

“He’s a lesson for the soldiers that if they ever rebel they will also be killed. A lesson of fear,” Chel explained.

“I want you off of my field,” Firenze declared angrily, “that you would bring your child to watch this is unconscionable.”

“Neither of us are leaving and you cannot force us without breaking an order. If you are such a just man, such a good soldier then what are you ashamed of,” Chel asked patiently.

Firenze looked ready to hit Chel but he restrained himself. He swallowed, “your father is very heavily sedated, he won’t feel anything,” Firenze promised Hailey.

Firenze turned on his boot heel and walked back to his soldiers. He shouted orders, they fired their plasma arcs into Enrico’s body and Hailey screamed and screamed. She didn’t even notice that after the firing squad had fired en masse, one of them walked up and fired a final shot into the base of the skull to make sure Enrico was dead.

The group quietly dispersed, removing the body. Firenze remained, he looked sadly down at Hailey.

“We have some sedatives should the little one need them,” he offered Chel uncomfortably. 

“No, save that for your prisoners, I’m sure you have plenty more to kill. I would like the ashes of my husband though. You may have killed him here but I want him buried somewhere free and clean.”

“You’re not even going to comfort her,” Firenze asked quietly in disgust, “you’re an evil woman.”

Hailey had stopped crying, but she was curled up in a ball on the hard dirt, she didn’t look at either adult. 

“We live on a planet where the People's party is able to send its secret police along and kidnap a man on his way home from work, beat him for months, cut off his fingers, and blind him all in the name of public safety. A government you work for. I’m merely getting her ready for the harsh realities of this world. If you don’t like it maybe you can adopt her now.”

“NOOOOO,” Hailey screamed jumping up and hiding behind Chel, “I will never go with you, I would rather be dead,” she screamed at Firenze.

"I didn't mean to hurt you little one," Firenze whispered to Hailey. "But you did when you killed her father. You do it to children everyday when you torture their parents. Remember that when you're just doing your job," Chel spat. Firenze’s fist shook again as she glared at Chel, “I will see to it that you receive his ashes before you go,” he informed her before heading inside.

As they left the military shuttleport after being dropped off their once more by the surly officer from earlier Hailey turned to Chel.

“Will I be staying with you from now on,” Hailey asked her mother.

“Yes.”

After a time Hailey spoke again, “Commodor Firenze said my hair was long and beautiful like his daughter’s.”

“Oh?”

“I would like to cut it all off,” Hailey said.

Chel looked down at her daughter and nodded, quietly pleased, “we can do that.”

 

Hailey thought of these things as she read through the various reports compiled by the young Amnesty staffer on Simon Illyan. 

He was a lieutenant during the aborted Escobar war. He was stationed on board the same ship as Prince Serg and Ges Vorrutyer, both of whom would have been indicted for war crimes had they not been blown to bits. Case reports from prisoners on board the ship stated that he and the Butcher of Komarr had been complicit in prisoner abuse including rape of the female prisoners. He may have also been integral in destroying the Imperium’s Office of Political Education, a shady hideout for an even more brutal version of their current secret police. After the death of Captain Negri he ascended to head of Imperial security where he overlooked various cases involving taping of private citizens and non-citizens commconsoles and ordering political assassionation on and off planet as well as approving torture of prisoners. Intelligence on him was based on hearsay, on internal leaks from the agency and from offworlder eyewitness reports. 

I can’t live here, she thought. She put her reader down on the coffee table of their apartment and got up. 

“I need to go for a run,” she told Chel before walking out.

“And what are you so nervous about? I’m going to be doing all of the work tomorrow,” Chel noted from her position at the kitchen table flipping through her pages of notes. But she didn’t stop Hailey.

She half expected Ivan or his parents to pop up during her run but they did not. This was for the best, even the idea of conversing with them now made her feel raw and angry.

The trick of the psychopath was that he could turn empathy on and off. The psychopath was capable of feeling emotion, of showing affection to a child or loved one and at the same time of incredible violence against his fellow humans. Did you want to move in with Commodore Firenze after all, she asked herself. No, she would have to explain things to Ivan tomorrow as best she could. She didn’t think he would understand, perhaps he didn’t know about his step father’s past work. Did Lady Alys? How much did she cover for Illyan? 

She bought a soda and sat down near a major shopping outlet to people watch for a bit. Better than going back and sitting in the apartment with more reading on her father’s step father, Hailey decided. 

Hailey got back late to find that Chel had disappeared. As Hailey was getting ready for bed Chel returned with no comment on where she had gone, perhaps to see her new man friend, perhaps to the office or out for some alone time too.


	8. Interview with an emperor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chel finally gets her interview with Gregor. Words are exchanged. Accusations are made. Judgments are passed.

Hailey rose before the alarm clock the next morning and got dressed in her black suit and tie and put the news on quietly before making breakfast for the two of them. Chel was more snappish before her interviews and Hailey was willing to do anything to cut down on that. Chel rose when she was ready and passed through the tiny living room to head to the bathroom. She turned on the shower.

Ivan strolled in earlier than expected with breakfast food in bags, he looked at what Hailey had already laid out and shrugged in apology, “guess I should have called ahead.”

“It’s alright, it’s the thought that counts,” Hailey noted making space for the food he’d brought. It certainly smelled better than anything she’d made. She pulled up another chair for him to sit down at and grabbed a plate.

“So… have you thought about who you wanted to live with,” Ivan asked cautiously.

“I think I’d like to stay with my mother,” Hailey said.

Ivan looked pained, “really? I mean she probably can’t hear you in there,” he noted nodding to the bathroom.

Hailey took a deep breath, “um, look, if someone was going to give you something good but he…. Was indicted for war crimes, would you take it?”

Hailey thought she could have handled this more tactfully but she wasn’t very good at mornings or feelings.

“Look I don’t know who told you- was it Mark? I bet he would make a smartass joke about my job. I am going to go over to Vorkosigan house and, and,” Hailey wasn’t sure if he was about to threaten violence against his cousin but an odd look came into his eye as he looked down at her so Ivan ended with, “um, give him a stern talking to about appropriate behavior. Look, my job is really boring, I’m basically someone’s secretary. I just file reports and stuff. I swear I don't do anything that even remotely resembles war crimes!”

“I wasn’t talking about you,” Hailey said to stem the tide of words on Ivan’s lips about how Not Guilty of war crimes he was.

“My mother,” Ivan asked in confusion, then in a blink he understood, “You mean Simon.”

“Yes.”

“You know a lot of the rumors surrounding him are made up or wildly exaggerated. He’s not a bad person, he’s just Simon. I mean he was pretty good about looking out for me growing up… the way he looked out for a lot of other people. Sure certain stuff from his old job required him to… but look it’s a tough job protecting the Imperium and that’s all he wanted to do,” Ivan explained.

“You know that was the argument of the People’s Party for why they executed Enrico,” Hailey said.

“But it’s not the same because this time it’s true,” Ivan tried desperately.

Hailey shook her head, “I couldn’t live like this.”

“What I wouldn’t give for that little git at the moment,” Ivan lamented.

Chel walked out of the bathroom fully dressed. She looked the part of an interrogator. “Oh, what’s that Ivan? Looks like you don’t always get what you want,” she said smiling sunnily as she walked into her bedroom and shut the door.

“I don’t want to make this difficult and I know I’m not supposed to say anything bad about her. But, but you know she’s just doing this to get her way,” Ivan declared testily. “That doesn’t mean her information is false,” Hailey noted.

Ivan frowned, “look, maybe if we just sat down together and talked about this Simon could just explain things to you… though his memory is bad these days since his memory chip, um malfunctioned.”

“I think some things can’t be solved by sitting around eating ma Kosti’s pastries,” Hailey noted acerbically.

“That’s because you didn’t get to stay and actually eat them the first time,” Ivan argued, “look, what if I married your mother.”

“What?”

“My mother really wants you to stay here and she is making me crazy! Do you know what it’s like to be an only child with this overly attentive parent always after you to do this or that? If I had a kid I could foist some of- she would love to dote on you.”

No, Hailey thought uneasily, she didn't want that at this stage in her life. She rather preferred that Chel had other more important things to do. She didn’t think she could handle anymore attention as it was. “Maybe you could just adopt a bunch of kids from an orphanage. Or do it Roman style, find an adult male and “adopt him” so he takes your name. Make sure he has no social graces whatsoever so Lady Alys would have a lot of work to do with them,” Hailey suggested

Ivan thought about this, “I wonder how attached Enrique is to his last name?”

Then Ivan shook his head, “no, look, I didn’t have a da growing up and I don’t want to – I mean you had those stepfathers, I guess but – and anyway I didn’t want to deprive you.” “It’s alright, there are plenty of children who don’t have any parents at all. It’s nice that you’re trying to look after me.”

“You are fifteen, why are you constantly placating me like some mother whose kid gave her a quarter stuffed in a baked potato as a mother’s day present,” Ivan declared.

“What?” Hailey tried to picture this.

“Look, I was seven, it was based off this bedtime story she used to read to me, and well… my mother thanked me for it but in that parent way where you know they’re just trying to be nice because you’re a little kid and they don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“I feel like you should talk to your mother about these feelings,” Hailey said.

“I could have told you that Ivan has mommy issues,” Chel noted coming out vidscanner in hand. She grabbed a blini and heading towards the door, “well I’m ready let’s go. Oh, Ivan you wore your military costume today.”

“It is a uniform, ma’am,” Ivan declared through clenched teeth.

“No dear, it’s a costume, you are playing dress up because unlike a real soldier you’ve never seen combat.”

Hailey shrugged an apology at him.

Ivan grumbled things sotto voce in Russian that neither of them understood as Hailey locked up. Then they headed down to Ivan’s car and set off for the residence.

Ivan, despite whatever he felt towards Chel, continued to play the part of the polite ambassadorial escort for Chel and Hailey by pointing out sites of interest as they drove around and through traffic. Hailey was impressed that he could discuss the architect’s meaning behind some of the buildings while not getting them killed. Though there seemed to be a few close calls.

“And where was the spot where they finally executed Made Emperor Yuri,” Chel asked politely.

Hailey from her position in the sports car’s cramped back seat noticed the way tension gathered in Ivan’s shoulders at the remark.

“I believe it was over at Vorhartung castle,” Ivan said tersely.

“Oh, perhaps we can visit there after, Hailey. You know your great uncle on Ivan’s side, Emperor Yuri, tried to murder his entire family. He failed and the survivors of his family butchered him instead. I heard it took a great deal of time to die since they would only make single cuts and let it bleed for a time. Just another example of Barrayar’s violent history, I suppose. You can never tell when you’re family members here are going to try to kill you,” Chel mused.

“My family is not like that,” Ivan began but was cut off.

“Hailey, don’t you remember I showed you that article about genetic predispositions to violence? I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason the current emperor won’t show his gene scan to the public is because he has the polymorphisms for it. That's selfish though since now people don't have any warning about his and his extended family's, including Ivan's, predisposition to snap suddenly and start murdering innocent people,” Chel noted.

To hand Hailey information about Simon Illyan was one thing, Hailey decided. But to bring up a violent, dead relative as a means of denouncing Ivan by association, was unfair. Moreover he seemed clearly upset about it and if Chel was right then Ivan had lost family members in that purge which was sad. Hailey bit her lip and felt a pang of empathy for her father.

“But when you’re older brother was indicted for multiple homicides didn’t you say it was a failure of the mental health system that no one had taken care of him,” Hailey asked innocently, “maybe we should look into gene polymorphisms in your family too. You know, so I know about my own predisposition for violence.”

Chel turned very slowly in her seat to look at Hailey, but said nothing. They stared at each other until Hailey dropped her gaze. Then Chel turned back around.

 

The meeting was set up in the back gardens where they might admire the well sculpted landscape. Chel instead took the time to complain about the amount of money the man could have spent on improving classrooms for the local orphanage instead of on gardening. The man of course was Gregor Vorbarra, emperor of three worlds. But Chel was never one to be intimidated.

They had barely left the car before several serious looking men in the armsmen black and silver of house Vorbarra came around and ran their scanners over all of them. It went crazy when run over Hailey and Ivan barely managed to save her before the other two armsmen tackled her to the ground.

“Hey! Hey! It’s fine, Hailey just… let me hold unto the knife while we’re here,” Ivan said standing between her and the armsmen.

Hailey pulled the blade out of her boot and handed it to Ivan hilt first.

“See, just a fancy letter opener really, it’s perfectly fine,” Ivan reassured everyone.

The alarm did not beep a second time when run over her and everyone let out a sigh of relief. Except for Chel who only murmured, “really dear, you should have left that silly thing at home, it won’t do any good against plasma arcs.”

They found Emperor Gregor on the residence's patio which overlooked the gardens. He was a thin man in expensive looking civilian garb. He was seated next to a plump friendly looking woman at a table which was shaded from the sun by a large welcoming tree. Not that it was warm enough yet in the day for the tree to be necessary. Chel noted the the woman, probably the empress unless he had some concubines that Chel didn't know of, wore Komarran style loose pants rather than a traditional Barrayaran skirt. Considering that Barrayar was a patriarchal society and Gregor Vorbarra was the ruler of this society Chel wondered how he let his wife get away with this act of rebellion. Certainly he understood what people would say, that they would ask how he planned to keep three planets in check when he couldn't even keep his wife in check and in properly submissive Barrayaran Vor-lady's clothes. But it wasn't her problem if the man was overthrown.

The emperor broke off conversation with the woman and looked up as Ivan, Chel and Hailey approached. Chel noticed more armsmen up on the patio and in the building, she wasn’t sure but she thought someone was stationed on the roof. It would be unsurprising if they had an entire battalion up there for this man. Not that it would matter for the purposes of the interview.

Chel wondered if Gregor was prepared for this talk. He had more warning of Chel’s questions than previous interviewees since Ivan, Lady Alys and a host of family and friends had likely reported back to him on her behavior. The question was whether he was cocky enough to think he could deal with it. From the videos she watched Vorbarra had always seemed subdued, even overshadowed by some of his subordinates. Yet it was still clear from all Barrayaran news stations that he was supreme ruler of his empire. Chel privately scoffed at this and called it a polite farce considering the position of the Council of Counts.

He looked shorter than Chel had expected, they always were. Still, he was tallish for a Barrayaran male but he seemed too… hm, circumspect and thoughtful to ever represent the Barrayaran soldier, the military commander persona. It didn’t fit him, Chel decided.

“Sire, Milady,” Ivan said as he finally stopped close to the couple on the other side of the table and bowed deeply.

The emperor nodded his head, “Lord Ivan Vorpatril, welcome.”

The empress similarly nodded, following her husband’s example but said nothing, she seemed to be waiting for cues from her husband as well.

“Allow me to introduce, Madame Chel Mujica, chief reporter and histographer of the Eba quadrant’s Amnesty Watch. And Hailey Mujica, my daughter,” Ivan declared, he couldn’t help but pet Hailey as he introduced her. Chel felt a possessive flair of rage at this, but discarded it quickly. She needed to focus on the interview. She had tickets for herself and Hailey to get off planet this evening anyway. No need to worry about the vor-thieves stepping in to steal her daughter.

“I present his highness Emperor Gregor Vorbarra and Empress Laisa Toscane,” ivan continued.

Gregor did not stand though he gestured to the chairs in front of him with a single wave, “Ivan has been kind enough to tell me all about both of you, please sit,” he offered Hailey a smile.

Ivan, Hailey and Chel slid in on the opposite side of the table.

Gregor seemed ready to say something when Chel cut in, “I do hope you’ve had your private security forces adequately study my background, I should hate to have to remind you of my basic biographical information.”

“Private security force, I do hope you are not referring to Imperial Security, an organization meant to serve the imperium and not merely myself,” Gregor explained stonily. If she had been a simple reporter Chel would have heard that voice and hurried to placate in fear of the interview or life ending abruptly. Chel was too used to dealing with difficult personalities to be stopped by Gregor’s displeasure. You’re going to have to step up your game if you want to avoid being eviscerated, Chel thought. Chel smiled at Gregor the way one did at a small child who claimed that he had no idea what happened to the chocolate cake despite it being smeared all over his face.

Food was being brought out by liveried men when Chel held up her hand, “surely you’re not going to waste my time by playing tea party. I assure you I came for an interview and not for cakes and sweets.”

“I would think there’s no need to be so impolite when my husband has already offered you an interview,” Laisa said, no longer able to keep silent. Not that her opinion mattered, Chel decided, women here were nothing more than toys for the men.

Gregor laid a gentle hand over his wife's but turned to Chel, “If you are so uncomfortable at this table then perhaps We can offer you an interview now along with a stroll through the gardens.”

“That would suit me incredibly well,” Chel stated. She had decided to take an automated vid cam which obeyed hand controls rather than bringing along an extra person who might get in the way.

Gregor considered the woman across from him then nodded and stood up. Chel and Hailey did so as well.

“Hailey, honey why don’t you sit with me and we can chat,”Laisa offered, apparently on cue based on the look Gregor gave her.

“Hailey comes with me,” Chel said firmly.

“We had expected Our interview would be between the two of us, did you need her,” Gregor asked, his patience visibly strained.

“I hope you’re not afraid of a fifteen year old girl,” Chel stated.

“Hm, well if you need her as a security blanket We won’t forbid it,” Gregor noted looking at Chel with a mixture of condescension and annoyance.

Chel scowled but stuck to her pride, “why don’t you stay here and play with your father,” she told Hailey.

Hailey tilted her head and studied Chel, but offered no comment. She moved around the table to sit next to the empress. Chel and Gregor headed off together, disappearing behind a well maintained hedge.

 

Chel had turned on the vid-cam which followed silently behind them.

“Would you like to start with your recent refusal to acknowledge a bid for a countship by a woman or the recent suppression of Greekie riots in the south continent?”

“We would like to acknowledge that while Countess Vorfelden is a well known socialite there is no indication that she has any experience in governing so much as a book club. We did not think it was appropriate to put the lives of millions of people in her hands in the name of women’s rights. The riots of which you speak of were not performed in the name of any independence movement by the Greekie minority here but as a response to a soccer match which got out of hand. What We would like to discuss is your decision to travel to Barrayar at all. The Imperium is much higher on the industrialized planets scale compared to the locations you usually visit,” Gregor noted.

Chel answered promptly, “the idea that the UGF would even think to allow you unto the security council despite your continued human rights violations with respect to homosexuals and children with congenital defects made me physically ill.”

“Truly,” Gregor asked softly, “and We had thought you were upset over Agent Dzershvsky’s deception.”

“So you acknowledge you sent a Barrayaran spy into my home to seduce me for information,” Chel declared enraged.

Gregor turned to look at Chel for the first time since they had begun their walk, “I do apologize for any perceived ill will. Imperial Security is my eyes and ears abroad but I do not directly oversee their actions and news of Agent Dzershvsky’s connection to you only reached me recently. If it eases the pain Imperial Security was never investigating you. Our agent was merely attempting to ah, blend with the local environment. I do think his feelings for you were sincere.”

Chel looked Gregor over, “Cute. So you play both good and bad officer? I can appreciate how you try to switch so seamlessly from irate supreme overlord to sweet good natured man. Perhaps if you’d had someone teach you the role it wouldn’t come off as so jerky and fake. Why haven’t you allowed same sex marriages yet?”

“Why do you insist on dragging your daughter around half the galaxy when she could have stayed here with Ivan’s family,” Gregor asked ignoring the question.

“What? So she can grow up in a society that devalues women? I know from galactic reports that the domestic violence rate on this planet is estimated to occur in 70% of households. I know that women can’t join the military, can’t run for council, and don’t pretend that they have an easy time in the university or at the graduate level. So what did you want from her, another flowery little miss like her grandmother? One whose only job is to lie on her back and please some man,” Chel demanded.

Gregor jerked back as if he’d been slapped, “I assure you madam that Lady Alys is no such woman and if you couldn’t see that in your meetings with her then you are completely blind to the truth. That statistic you’ve recited is from a study done over thirty years ago taken even before my regent Aral Vorkosigan started his work and I assure you that the numbers have dropped steadily since then, thank you. I do admit that women have more limited opportunities than men here, We have tried to broaden their acceptance within certain areas while keeping a fragile peace with Our conservative party. We admit the work is far from done. But We also think it is unacceptable that you didn’t give Hailey or her father’s family a choice in your decision making.”

“I’ve never thought of her as Ivan’s daughter, she is Enrico’s and I promised him I would look after her,” Chel stated nobly.

“By taking her into every war zone you could,” Gregor finished.

“It’s not easy being a single mother,” Chel retorted.

“You were never single, you merely never bothered to look for the father. Come now, you owe me the truth at least I have given you this interview time. Begin at the beginning and leave nothing out, tell me how this came to be,” Gregor said simply.

“I owe you? I owe you? I owe you nothing, I got this interview because I was relentless in obtaining it and used all of my resources, something you as a pampered palace brat would never understand when everything has been handed to you since birth because you happened to be born to this family. Don’t pretend that it was skill or ability which has gotten you this position. And besides even if I told you, you would only take Ivan’s side in this matter,” She sniffed.

“How can We take your side in this matter if I don’t know what it is? At the moment We think you are nothing more than another ambitious self obsessed woman with a chip on her shoulder towards those with wealth. Which seems contradictory as We know your family was wealthy and you have gone to some of the finest schools on Illyrica. We know you were gifted a pony on your tenth birthday and you threw a fit because it was black with white spots and not white with black spots as you had specifically requested.”

Chel did not flinch from this, though she was unable to control the widening of her eyes at this revelation, “Damn your spies! I hated my family, I hated the hollowness of our home life and the fact that the only love they could communicate was through presents. They never had time for me except at social functions or if I had won some petty prizes at school. Our family was so screwed up. They didn’t bother to help Johnny when he got addicted to red cloud, they just tried to keep it quiet so they wouldn’t be embarrassed in front of the neighbors. They paid him to move out and they paid for high class drugs for him so he wouldn’t get caught going to some common dealer. Can you imagine that they let him throw his life away? Hell they helped him do it, all in the name of reputation! So I wanted to get away, to find something real. They disowned me when I quit college my junior year and did a year in the Galactic Alliance Corps on Vivaria, helping to build water supply systems in their deserts for the nomads. There I met Enrico, he was a poet and an intellectual then. It would be a few years before he got involved in violent activities. He tried so hard to work through peace but how can you do that with all the gassings and the beatings and the secret police? No one can hear your non-violent message if you’re dead. During this time I became a member of his group. I was tasked with delivering a man, a poet condemned to death for his writings on the regime to the shuttleport so that he might live and write in exile until it was safe for him to return. That's when I met your Captain Ivan Vorpatril,” Chel explained.

“Hm, yes Ivan described it as a moment of youthful indiscretion. I can imagine the subsequent child was both a surprise and an embarrassment since you were trying to conceive with your first husband Enrico. We understand reticence to find a man who left you abruptly. We do not approve of the fact that you would wait fifteen years until you could get something from him in exchange for seeing his daughter,” Gregor noted.

“Youthful indiscretion, is that what it’s called when a man gets a woman drunk and takes advantage of her? Is ‘youthful indescretion’ just another word for rape in your society,” Chel demanded.

A chill spread in the air.

“To falsely accuse an officer of a crime is punishable with a jail sentence, even to an offworlder,” Gregor stated quietly.

“I told you that you would take Ivan’s side no matter what I said, that you would even pretend otherwise is despicable,” Chel spat.

Gregor was silent and troubled, “I imagine you do not have proof of this… perhaps a fast penta session would be enough...”

“A fast penta session for me? Sure you pretend you love women, that you’re interested in improving their rights and quality of life but the minute one says anything negative about a man, you immediately move to silence her or punish her,” Chel declared.

Gregor opened his mouth, closed it, “I only wish for justice, surely this is what you want. If it please you We will see to it that Ivan is fast penta’d first.”

 

“The current problems with limb regrowth lie in the fact that unlike say, regrowing a heart or lung it’s not really a separate autonomous organ from the body. Not only do you have to attach and reattach all of the nerves, but think about a wounded child. The child will continue to grow, but the limb will not always, there’s a 40% chance of it staying diminutive and it’s not yet clear why this happens or what growth factors can be added to help it grow properly. But metallic prosthetics though they have been fine tuned still don’t give appropriate biofeedback and a large minority of individuals also complain of phantom limb pain while using them,” Hailey explained.

“I imagine that research in this area would be useful for accident victims,” Laisa noted listening to Hailey’s explanation with interest.

“Or soldiers injured in combat,” Ivan offered.

Laisa had at this point gotten out her datapad and was looking with Hailey at the various university’s on Barrayar and the research interests of faculty when an unusually pale Gregor returned with Chel.

Ivan raised an eyebrow at Gregor as he neared but said nothing.

“Lord Ivan Vorpatril,” Gregor said sternly, “We Request and Require a word with you, immediately.”

Hailey understood this was not something Ivan had expected considering the choking tension that had arrived with Gregor. Laisa also looked worried but said nothing.

“Madam Mujica, please remain with my wife until Our return,” Gregor instructed curtly before disappearing with an unhappy Ivan in tow.

Chel looked smug. What did you do, Hailey thought furiously. This is why I need to come along with you. Chel sat down and a server came over to bring new rounds of tea for everyone.

“How was your interview,” Hailey asked coming around to sit next to her mother.

“I think he dodged a number of my questions but I will manage,” Chel stated firmly, “I don’t think the emperor was quite prepared for it though.”

“Oh, do you think I could-“ Hailey began when she knocked the cup of tea seated precariously close to the edge of the table unto Chel’s lap.

Chel jumped up and backwards swearing, “can you pay attention to what you are doing? What is wrong with you,” Chel demanded in Basque.

“Sorry, sorry," Hailey apologized to Chel then turned to Laisa and asked in English,"is there a bathroom nearby?" A woman appeared out of nowhere and led them to one.

“Well I don’t need your help to clean myself,” Chel noted in disgust wiping brown tea off her dark blue skirt.

“What did you say to get Ivan in trouble?”

Chel looked over at her daughter and snorted, “oh, is that what this is about? I merely told the emperor the truth about his beloved subject.”

“What did you tell the emperor about my father?”

Hailey did not raise her voice, she didn’t have to, she knew how Chel gained command with her tone and she copied it.

Chel didn’t care though she smiled in false amusement, “you think to use my own technique on me? Cute. I wouldn’t tell you anything if I didn’t want to. But since you’re so interested in daddy I only told the emperor that your father raped me. Oh? But I see by your face you’re sorry you asked the question now aren’t you?”

“I’m only sorry that you’ve stooped so low as to lie, to the ruler of three damn planets just to keep your dignity intact! What were you thinking,” Hailey asked in horror.

Chel stared in disgust at her, “so that’s it? A woman admits to a traumatic experience, your own mother admits to a traumatic experience, and all you can do is question her and make threats to protect your father? Is this the daughter I raised? It couldn’t be, I’d rather you were dead than this.”

“Chel, for the love of,” Hailey began angry then forced herself to take a deep breath then another tack, “you know you’re right. I don’t actually know what happened. You were there and I wasn’t. But oh, how could Enrico do that to you?”

Chel froze in drying her skirt and straightened up, “what are you babbling about?”

“Were you afraid to tell him about what happened on the station? Did you tell him and he divorced you when I was born anyway, knowing full well it wasn’t your fault? Or were you never able to tell him because you couldn’t trust him enough? But then, I guess he wasn’t the heroic martyr you’ve always painted him to be,” Hailey asked.

Hailey saw it coming, but she didn’t move as Chel’s hand made forceful contact with her face.

“You don’t ever say that about my husband,” Chel said quietly.

Hailey raised her chin defiantly, “then don’t make me speak falsehoods against the dead and admit the rape isn’t true.”

“So what? So you can run away with your father and live happily ever after? Do you hate me that much despite all I’ve given you?”

“No. Look, you know your interview with the ruler of Giansu shamed him into opening the planet up to foreign aid groups and subsequently inspectors which improved the lives of people there. Your work in Djao-wu helped get that despot ousted from power and helped a less violent, less corrupt regime settle into power. You do good things,” in spite of yourself, Hailey thought, “so don’t ruin it now by lying. Because you know people like stories of improvement, but they love stories about tearing people down. Don’t let that happen, don’t let your legacy be one of you falsely accusing some soldier because your pride was slighted. You need to be the better person, not for me or Ivan or the emperor, but for yourself and for the people at Amnesty who look up to you. How do you want to be remembered?”

Chel wavered on this and stepped back to put a hand on the sink counter to steady herself, she was shaking.

Hailey had thought the mood swings the last few months had been rather intense, more so than usual and she had chalked it up to Chel’s need for action and unreserved admiration. She wilted in peace. But now in even the soft, complimentary lighting of the bathroom Hailey wondered, Chel, are you sick? Hailey felt her gut clench.

“Look, we’ve gotten out of worse situations than this. You have to tell the emperor the truth about this before it gets out and gets worse. I will go with you if you need me to, I would never abandon you,” Hailey said quietly. Chel was a pain, but Chel was her mother and Hailey owed her that much.

The door swung open and Laisa stood in the doorway, “I had heard something was wrong,” she said carefully taking in Chel now with her face buried in one hand, still leaning against the sink counter.

“Everything is fine,” Hailey said calmly, automatically.

Chel blew out a long breath and looked up, “go back to the tables outside, the grown ups are talking,” Chel said dismissively.

Hailey frowned, but decided that now was not the time for arguing as long as Chel straightened things out on Ivan’s behalf.

When she stepped out there was already a servant present to lead her back outside. He asked if she would like a stroll through the gardens or if she would like to sit outside and drink something. She asked for some Dr. Fizz and sat at the empty table. She sat there quite a while but when she got antsy and tried to go back in a servant appeared and asked her what she needed before telling her, very politely, that she needed to wait outside. He also reiterated that she could take a walk through the gardens or have something to drink.

Perhaps she should have said nothing, Hailey thought. And what? And been an accomplice to this lie, and let Ivan be punished because it was easier than yelling at her mother? But what would they do with her mother, Hailey worried. They’d escaped from despotic rulers enraged by her interviews before. Of course they had made plans to do so before this, just in case. This time they hadn’t and Hailey didn’t know what the plan was. Her stomach hurt. Are you happy now, she asked herself.

 

 

Chel was gone, Gregor had been calmed down enough that he was breathing normally again, and to Ivan’s relief he didn’t look so gray.

Despite the tense past half hour, with the departure of Chel Ivan’s stomach growled and he felt hungry. Did anyone else want lunch after this? Granted it was only an hour and a half since he’d had breakfast but he felt like he’d just run a training exercise from back in the academy. Maybe Hailey was hungry too… maybe Hailey was going to freak out about her mother’s rapid departure and Gregor’s ruling, Ivan thought. Could he shove that explanation off on Gregor? Or his mother, where was she at this hour?

“What were you planning on telling Hailey,” Laisa asked Ivan, now thinking of his daughter as well.

“From the recordings in the bathroom she obviously knew about her mother’s duplicity, surely she won’t be surprised. Not to mention that Chel hit her, in my home,” Gregor noted. It was not a well-kept secret that Gregor had a soft spot for children and cute animals, Ivan thought.

The staff of the emperor did not make it a habit of eavesdropping on the emperor’s guests, unless there was just cause. In which case it was a mere flip of a switch to record. No effort needed and no new equipment to install. Playing the conversation back for Chel through a translator had finally wiped the sneer off her face, albeit for a short time. The woman always had to have the last word. Gregor had even been charitable towards her and not thrown her in prison or executed her for lying to his face, which he was still legally allowed to do. He had even promised not to inform her organization of her lack of professionalism in exchange for her giving up custody rights of Hailey, effective immediately. The charges of child abuse still stood.

Gregor had also given her a timetable of 2 days to get off planet and a ticket on a Barrayaran ship anywhere she wished to go. Chel had been curtly informed to never return to Barrayaran soil again or Gregor would have no qualms about releasing the audio surveillance tapes to her agency as well as all other major news outlets. She would also publicly stand trial for both the child abuse charges and the slander charges in Vorbarra District’s court.

“Well, I’m sure it will be alright, though… I mean I’m not complaining, but you didn’t even throw her in prison,” Ivan noted.

Gregor looked over at Ivan in mild surprise, “Of course not, the woman is an egomaniac, if I executed her or threw her in prison she would find a way to turn it into a martyrdom. I could see the Amnesty headlines now about how an intrepid reporter tried to interview me and ended up in prison for it. No… the trick with her kind is to brush her aside, let her go on her way as if she weren’t even worth the space to put in prison. Admittedly I was surprised she would shoot herself in the foot by falsely accusing you of rape. But now she can’t complain about her treatment at Our hands or the loss of her daughter because We have evidence that would ruin her reputation for impenetrable integrity. She could deal with Our threatening to damage her life and limb. She would thrive on that. But her ego and people’s perception of her are important to Chel. I merely found a way to use that. What will really grate on her is that she could have prevented this if only she had not panicked and lied.”

Ivan’s eyebrows shot up, Gregor had effectively damaged her psychologically and emotionally without touching her or even raising his voice. No bruises, no evidence. Ivan made a mental note to not make Gregor angry, then he underlined it several times.

“Remind me to never make you angry,” he muttered.

Gregor smiled slightly, “actually I was speaking to your lady mother earlier this morning and she had made several suggestions as to how I should handle Chel.”

Ivan made another mental note to be nicer to his mother and underlined that one several times too. Despite all that had happened this morning and his near death experience with Gregor before Laisa had come in and saved his life, Ivan was nevertheless extremely grateful to Chel for getting rid of herself for him. It wasn’t his fault, it was her own lies, about him being a potential rapist no less which had gotten her this punishment. Chel had gotten rid of herself so there wouldn’t be an ugly custody battle, she would be off planet soon so she wouldn’t be skulking around in the background, and none of it was Ivan’s fault. His mother would be happy over this turn of events, she’d have a granddaughter to dote upon and stay out of Ivan’s hair… though Lady Alys had been doing that well enough since she and Simon had become a couple, Ivan admitted. Ivan thought about his discussion with Hailey this morning and her sudden reticence in moving in with his family. Well, and Hailey would just have to get used to it, he decided. He hoped Hailey would get used to it. Maybe she would cry, he thought uneasily. He hated it when women cried.

“Maybe I’ll just go talk to her then,” Ivan muttered.

He stopped off briefly in the Residence’s kitchens to abscond with food, because why not? They were here after all and really Hailey was kind of short. Maybe she just needed to be fed more.

Hailey sat on a bench beyond the original table which had been cleared of the drinks from earlier. Empress Laisa’s datapad had also been picked up and moved. She sat staring off towards the garden. She looked up as Ivan headed over to her. Perhaps he should have been practicing what he was supposed to say to her. Sorry but your mother got booted off planet for lying to the emperor and hitting you, you’re living with me now was expedient but indelicate.

“Hailey, I-“ Ivan began.

“Is my mother coming back,” Hailey asked looking up at him.

Ivan pursed his lips and wracked his brain for something his mother would say before sitting down next to Hailey. He silently offering her a sandwich he’d snagged. She shook her head and stared up at him, expectantly.

“Here on Barrayar we have some pretty esoteric laws, like that a count is in charge of all unclaimed horse manure in his district. Then again we have some universal rules, bearing false witness against any person, especially an officer in the imperial military is a crime punishable by jail time or execution,” Ivan began.

“You're going to execute her,” Hailey demanded horrified.

“No! No, that’s not what I meant, she’s not going to be executed. I just meant that her crime was serious, compounded by the fact that she made this confession to the ruler of the planet and Gregor takes it very personally when people try to manipulate him. She’s only getting deported, to any planet where a Barrayaran jumpship is flying, and several thousand marks to buy another ticket from there. So really it’s a good deal for her, and we’re not even pressing charges or informing her organization.”

“Did she trade me for this or was I something you planned to pocket from the beginning,” Hailey asked.

Damn, the kid was fast and straight to the point.

“I- well mostly Laisa… and I and well Gregor already knew the desires of my mother, thought it would be best if you didn’t go with her all things considered. I mean she hit you,” Ivan explained reasonably then biting into a sandwich.

Hailey shrugged, “And the father disciplines every child that he loves. It’s not like it will even left a bruise.”

Shit. Ivan spat out his sandwich, “that, that is so very wrong. Does Chel do that? A lot?”

Hailey shrugged, “she has her cycles, we got a long really well when Isa was around and even for a few months after that. But recently, and before that, well it’s difficult being a single mother and she’s always under a lot of stress.”

“Because she’s fucking crazy and she chooses to go into war zones! This is not your mother being idiosyncratic this is her being psychotic! I know it, you know it, honestly at this point there is no one who has met her and doesn’t know it!”

Hailey didn’t say anything, she only turned back to look at the garden. Ivan winced, well that might have been too abrupt. “Look, hey,” Ivan reached over and touched her shoulder.

She pushed it away, “please don’t do that.”

“I wasn’t saying anything about you. It’s not your fault that she’s like this,” Ivan went on. Please don’t cry, Ivan almost said.

Hailey sighed and ran her hands through her hair.

“We can even go to a toy store if you want, or the Dorca the Just amusement park,” Ivan offered trying to cheer her up and panicking. He really needed a manual on proper parenting.

Hailey turned to glare at him.

“Or, um something more adult,” Ivan offered. Right, teenagers were sensitive about being treated like adults, he remembered vaguely.

“Can we just go somewhere else? Do I get to take my stuff from the apartment or do we just burn all of that before I start my new identity as a Vorpatril,” she asked.

The tone made it sound like a genuine question. But the words, well those had a meaning that Ivan wasn’t sure he wanted to tease out. Though he supposed he’d done harder things before and this seemed important to the kid.

“Um, I guess we could, or, better, I could send Christos or one of m’mothers other people to get your stuff,” Ivan offered.

“I would really prefer to do it myself. Do I get to say…..goodbye,” Hailey asked, the last word sounding particularly strange on her tongue.

“We’re not heartless for all Chel seems to have you believing, look you can see her tomorrow or the next day before her flight but let’s ah, let her cool down first,” Ivan suggested. Yeah, and bring a large guard or ten to stand between them in case Chel got any bright ideas, Ivan thought.

Hailey looked about ready to say something but her attention caught on something over Ivan’s shoulder.

Gregor and Laisa had returned hand in hand and stood over them, Gregor casting a shadow over Ivan.

“I am not usually such a terrible host as to abandon my guests to their own devices. Though Ivan seems fully capable of raiding my kitchens,” Gregor noted lightly.

The rage from earlier was almost unnoticeable on his face and in his actions now, Ivan thought.

“No one said I wasn’t resourceful,” Ivan offered.

Gregor smiled but looked beyond Ivan, “Hailey… I had meant to speak with you but between the events of this morning and my meeting with minister Vovayne I don’t have the time and I suspect you don’t have the inclination,” From a pocket he withdrew a single card and held it out, “I would like to offer you my card should you wish to talk to me, there’s only one gateman who screens my calls but otherwise you will be linked directly to me.”

Ivan had a moment of panic where he thought Hailey might refuse it or take it and rip it up. After a long moment she reached across Ivan and took it.

“Thank you,” she said almost inaudibly, placing it in her pocket before looking away. It was not the grateful thanks of a subject honored by the gesture but it was polite enough. Gregor looked ready to say more but Laisa pressed his hand.

“I did enjoy our discussion earlier Hailey, please come back to the residence anytime or call me. You already have my card,” Laisa smiled at the girl.

Hailey nodded, offering no comment of her own.

 

Back in Ivan’s car, “You know it’s not really fair to be angry with Gregor, I mean he didn’t really have a choice about this and I thought he was being very generous with your mother.”

“Angry,” Hailey asked in confusion, “I was just… shocked.”

She was quiet as Ivan drove them back to his apartment.

The apartment had two bed rooms, a living room and a kitchen and bathroom.

“I didn’t pick out furniture for your room, my mother handled all of that,” Ivan said. It’s not my fault, she heard him silently scream when he showed her the room. It had a bed, a chair, a desk, a dresser and a mirror from what she could see from their position. It didn’t overtly scream femininity, the room wasn’t splashed with pink as she’d half expected from the way Ivan carried on. But it was definitely suited for a girl from the soft lavender tones of the wall which went well with the white furniture.

She nodded politely, “it looks very masterfully decorated, your mother was very thoughtful.”

“We can always change things out if you’d like,” Ivan said, “it would be easy.”

They went out to lunch where Hailey pushed things around on her plate. Then to the Museum of Mechanical Evolutions which was part of the Vorbarra Sultana university. It had a cloth and wood glider from the Time of Isolation stationed next to a mini-replica of the Prince Serg. A comment on how quickly the planet had been required to change in a hundred years.

Ivan kept up a fairly steady stream of conversation when they went past several more displays of light flyers and battleship replicas, explaining that they had a wider assortment at the Aviation Museum should she like to go. It was very hard for her to concentrate on the things in front of her as she started to wonder what Chel was doing. Was she alright? Hailey discreetly checked her wristcomm, no she hadn’t been called recently. But it was so unlike Chel to simply give up and leave just because the man in charge of several planets said so and he had an army to back him up. She had always been certain of her prowess before and now… had she done this on purpose? Was this a ruse or was she trying to get rid of Hailey? No, of course not Hailey told herself. Chel didn’t particularly like her daughter, Hailey understood that, but that didn’t mean Chel would just leave without her, right? “Are you feeling alright,” Ivan asked her.

She shook her head.

You know there’s a reason Chel wears long sleeves even in the summer, she wanted to tell Ivan. But if she did what would happen? Perhaps Chel was working through this on her own, perhaps she wasn’t cutting and everything was fine. Didn’t her suicide threats usually require an audience? Maybe it would be fine… what would happen if Hailey said something and Chel was perfectly fine? What were the rules of reporting mental health problems here? Would they lock her up on a ward? Hailey shuddered, that would send Chel over the edge for certain.

“Are you cold,” Ivan asked, worriedly.

“No, I’m, I’m just tired,” Hailey said.

“I’ll take you home then,” he promised, “did you want to order takeout first? I know you didn’t eat anything after breakfast, or I could cook if you really wanted.”

“I’m not hungry, my stomach has been hurting.”

 

When they got back to Ivan’s apartment he’d given her some pain killers and soup before letting her go to bed. He offered her some of his old ship knits which she accepted. Not that lying in bed was anymore restful to her mind but at least she didn’t have to talk to anyone. Was Chel alright? Was she out with her newest man? What was happening and should Hailey worry? Perhaps Chel would enjoy life without a daughter following her around, it would be easier on her and she’d always made that clear. Hailey dreamed of the killer again that night.


	9. Chel leaves Barrayar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chel leaves Barrayar while causing as much angst as humanly possible

Early the next morning Hailey got up and went to use Ivan’s commconsole. She thought he wouldn’t be angry if she used it. Hailey tried calling the apartment number but got no response then her mother’s office number which she’d been told to only use in case of the Apocalypse and still got nothing. Her mother’s wristcomm chime stated that the number was no longer in use.

Ivan was standing behind her at this point, “your mother not picking up?”

Hailey shrugged, “it’s kind of early.”

“Yeah,” Ivan drifted off and made a wristcomm call in Russian to someone. If she was going to stay here for any length of time Hailey supposed she should learn Russian too. It would at least make eavesdropping much easier. 

He wasn’t yelling at least, Hailey watched him as he waited to talk to someone. He exchanged a few words with that other person and then he hung up. “Uh, well she hasn’t used her ticket off planet yet, so that’s good,” he offered looking clearly relieved. 

Ivan made Hailey eat breakfast before she tried to call again, still getting no answer.

“Maybe we should just head over, she might not be in the mood to take calls from my console,” Ivan offered, “or you know, you could just leave her a message and we could go to the Dorca the Just theme park, they’ve got some neat coasters. Or if you wanted to fly around in a lightflyer we could do some sights or you could fly it. We could practice.” Ivan was having nightmare images of an enraged Chel, Hailey decided.

“I’d really like to see my mother first, if that’s alright. You don’t have to come up if you don’t want to. You could wait in the car and I’ll just come back when I’m done,” Hailey offered.

Ivan seemed to think about this.

They drove over to Chel’s apartment and parked. Hailey tried to get out but Ivan caught her arm, “why don’t we wait a minute or so until Christos and Janos come?” Lady Aly’s groundcar pulled up shortly after them and out stepped the muscular Christos and his associate Janos. Fortunately Lady Alys was not with them.

They trooped up together, Hailey knocked for a while then took out her card key and opened the door herself. The apartment looked just the same as it had the day before. Even the milk which she had forgotten to put away in the rush and snappy comments of Chel was still out and starting to smell. Particularly since it was warm out today and Chel hadn’t adjusted the climate control. Odd, she preferred it cooler. Hailey bit her lip and wandered into her mother’s room, backing up and knocking when she noticed a figure on the bed. She knocked loudly on the door frame and called to her mother in Basque. Chel would not like it if some men saw her underdressed so Hailey tried to keep the door closed. But Chel didn’t respond.

“Er, maybe I should go in and look first, why don’t you,” Ivan began looking pale.

The lump on the bed suddenly made noise, it was an odd wet cough kind of noise and Hailey went over, knowing before she pulled the blankets back that it wasn’t her mother. Medical universities had created life size human “patients” for their students to practice on. This doll was clearly one of the sub models meant to replicate certain heart and lung abnormalities such as tachycardia, heart murmer, and fluid filled lungs as seen in some congenital abnormalities. Not necessarily a problem for galactics, but where there were body births there was bound to be trouble.The body was also warm to stimulate the feel of a patient and it had a pulse. It was clunky where Chel was graceful and not tall enough to be her, Hailey decided.

“Ivan, how does Chel’s minder know where she is at all times, does he follow her around,” Hailey asked.

“He is not a mind-“ Ivan cut himself off, choosing to not pick this battle, “I’m sure he has a heat sensor from his vantage point wherever he is, he would have called if there was trouble.”

“Perhaps she turned the body on after bringing it up, I’m not sure how she worked it,” Hailey mused.

Ivan came over, touched the giant doll and muttered something that didn’t sound friendly.

Hailey bit her lip and opened a drawer by the bed, carefully taking out the clothes and miscellaneous things in there until she reached the false bottom which she took out. Nothing was there. Well, that settled that, she decided numbly. Where did you decide to go and was I supposed to follow? Did I miss a signal? 

Her head was in her hands now. Christos and Janos were standing at the door, They hadn’t entered the room, but she felt their eyes burning into her back. Ivan gingerly knelt down beside her.

“What was supposed to be under here,” Ivan asked gently.

“She used to keep the fake passports and money there,” Hailey said carefully trying to make sure her voice didn’t crack.

“So she’s gone? Why would she- She would at least have used Gregor’s ticket off planet instead of wasting her own money and how had she-“ Ivan fumed inarticulately.

“Pride. She wanted to show the emperor that she didn’t need him or his pity gift,” Hailey stated. 

“Hailey I’m sorry, I thought she’d be here. We wouldn’t have come otherwise,” Ivan explained.

“Maybe she didn’t leave willingly, who knows if she was kidnapped and fast penta’d, maybe the kidnappers stole her passports and planted the fake body,” Janos offered helpfully. Ivan and Christos turned to glare at him.

“I’m so sorry, he’s newly retired from Impsec, it’s just professional paranoia,” Christos explained apologetically. 

“Why don’t we go do something else and I’ll get the boys down here to look the place over,” Ivan suggested, “not that we need to, I’m pretty sure she left of her own accord. Unless it would be easier for you if she was kidnapped,” Ivan was obviously confused about whether it would be more emotionally traumatizing if Hailey’s mother had willfully abandoned her for some unknown destination or if she’d been forcibly abducted. 

Hailey decided that she would like to go somewhere else. Somewhere away from people, she thought, she didn’t want to talk to anyone now. Would Ivan let her hide in her bedroom all day? Maybe he would invite his mother and step father over to deal with her. What to do to keep them all at bay?

“Could we go to the home improvement store. I’d like to buy some paint. Can I repaint my room,” Hailey asked.

“Uh, sure, but I could just call someone to do that,” Ivan offered nonplussed.

“No, I’d really like to do it myself.”

Ivan didn’t argue. 

He was a good sport about the whole thing. 

Several hours later Hailey looked up to find Lady Alys standing in the doorway of her bedroom. 

“I try not to drop by unexpectedly as I know Ivan hates it… but I was curious to see it myself. I’m so glad you didn’t paint the windows black. Ivan must have said that as a joke,” Lady Alys noted, turning around to give her son a look. 

Ivan, in the kitchen, studiously ignored it. 

“Did you do all of this by yourself,” Lady Alys asked studying the wall with the Chinese junkers sailing, among them and above them floated hot air balloons on a serene sea. In the background were pagodas and signs of civilization amongst the tree lines. The back wall where Hailey’s bed would be against was a forest scene. The wall she was working on contained fields of sunflowers and above them floated more balloons. The farthest wall from the door and the wall she was working towards would hold castle XiBao. She was painting scenes from a bedtime story her third stepfather used to read her. “Ivan helped me put the first coats down and he press ganged the apartment staff to help him move the furniture out,” Hailey explained. “Ah,” Lady Alys lapsed back into silence and moved back towards Ivan.

Hailey heard them talking in the kitchen but they were speaking Russian again. She was really going to have to learn the language. She continued on painting her flowers, she was almost done with this side for now. She would come back to all of it with the glow paint later. She wanted to add some glow in the dark scenes too. 

“Hailey, dear, I would like it if you and Ivan came to dinner tonight. I will expect you to be there in about three hours. That should be enough time to finish this wall, yes? And take a bath, you’ve got paint all over yourself,” Lady Alys noted before turning around.

“Lady Alys,” Hailey called out, “what does Imperial Security do if they catch a spy who is Penta proof?”

Lady Alys stopped and raised an eyebrow, “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with the current techniques they use… I’m sure it’s nothing too terrible. Why do you ask?” “What did Illyan do as Chief of Impsec? What did he do before that,” she asked.

Lady Alys paused before answering this with another blasted question, “is this based on something someone told you?”

They wouldn’t even name her mother anymore it seemed. Are you fearful that I’ll have a psychotic episode, Hailey wondered. 

“It was based on something someone gave me to read. Did you know Ges Vorrutyer,” she asked.

Lady Alys was a master of facial control that her eyes only widened for a brief second before returning to their usual serene appearance, “I met him only briefly, much to my good fortune. I know Simon served under him during the war with Escobar and that Admiral Vorrutyer was posthumously indicted for war crimes. I will note that many men served under him and that in a very structured environment such as on a military spacecraft there is no outlet for voicing opinions of dissent. I… am not sure what you know of Ges but I assure you that Simon took no part in any of it.”

“Were you there?”

Lady Alys was silent.

“Come on, you’ve met him, he’s not sadistic… unless you work for him in which case Miles tells me – but anyway, his reputation is for being incorruptible, how could that be if he was out committing atrocities,” Ivan put in, stepping into the doorway.

“There’s a Vivarian saying, ‘Even murderers can make good fathers’,” Hailey noted.

“Hailey, you’re being dramatic,” Lady Alys began.

“There is nothing dramatic, or silly, or stupid or wrong or any of your other belittling adjectives about not wanting to sit at a table with a man who chops off peoples’ fingers and calls it justice,” Hailey shouted, “I am not going to dinner with him and I don’t care if that means I don’t eat!”

“Um, I’m pretty sure Simon hasn’t done that,” Ivan offered.

The adults exchanged looks.

“Perhaps I had not properly considered how stressful today has been for you and I apologize for that. I understand that based on past experience you’re skeptical of individuals who hold or have held certain government positions. I would like for it if you would talk to Simon about this and discuss what you have read with what he has to say. I do care about both of you deeply and would like to see this worked out as efficiently as possible,” Lady Alys explained.

Hailey wanted to refuse, but she nodded. She did not offer verbal response, but the nod was enough for Lady Alys who continued, “I am disappointed that you won’t be dining with us tonight. But it’s best if tensions run down before we continue.”

With that she and Ivan headed towards the door. It opened and shut and Hailey vaguely wondered if Ivan and Lady Alys had gone to dinner with Simon. Hailey wouldn’t be surprised, Chel had done that enough if Hailey had been acting out. She was surprised when the door opened a few minutes later and Ivan poked his head in. “I was going to get take-out for the two us, did you want anything in particular?”

Hailey stared at him, this was new, why was he rewarding her tantrum? “There’s this Basque restaurant not too far from here that delivers if you’re feeling homesick. I haven’t tried it so you’d have to tell me what’s good,” Ivan prompted with a smile. 

Hailey shrugged and looked away, “I don’t care. Whatever you want is fine.”

This kindness was more painful to her than if the two of them had yelled at her and set up some punishment. Perhaps we’re still in the honeymoon phase of things and the yelling won’t come until later. She didn’t know when and that bothered her, she liked to get through the bad things quickly so she didn’t have to sit around dreading them.

Ivan ordered something from several restaurants and then spent the dinner talking about the local attractions and schools in the area. He asked whether she wanted to go through the brochures before looking at them or if the tour and interviews would be enough. Ivan explained that he hoped it was alright but his mother had limited the number to ones she thought Hailey might be interested in. Hailey nodded a lot and tried to contribute but she couldn’t think of much to say.

“You know there’s plenty of food if you want more,” Ivan noted several times as he watched her pick at and move around what she had on her plate. 

“Is there something you’d prefer,” he asked finally.

“No, I’m just not very hungry,” She admitted.

“…is this a body image thing? You know you’re plenty skinny you don’t have to lose weight,” Ivan stated firmly. 

“It’s not a body image thing.”

“Really? I could see Ch- someone putting pressure on you, she’s certainly the type.”

“No. I don’t feel well, my stomach hurts.”

Ivan frowned, “like earlier? Did you want to go see a doctor? Do you think it’s your appendix? How bad is the pain?”

Ivan was getting himself all worked up, Hailey noted. “No. Sometimes when I’m… not in a good mood my stomach hurts,” she explained.

“Oh. Did you want to go see a psychiatrist?”

“I’m not crazy, Vorpatril.”

“No, if you were crazy enough for them to want to lock up I wouldn’t suggest it. Hell the Countess made Gr- Mark go for therapy. It would be great and if you play your cards right there’s usually chocolate at the end of it.”

“You know this from personal experience?”

Ivan looked sheepish, “my mother had me going for a little while as a kid, until she figured out I was just making things up so we’d go to this ice cream store down the block. She said therapy was for the birds and the Betans after that.”

 

Ivan was watching a docudrama on the vids. It was late and Hailey had gone to bed, the kid looked really drained so he figured that was for the best. He wasn’t really paying attention to the vid, he was also drained from the day. He supposed he shouldn’t have been so surprised that Hailey was living with him now. Well, maybe he should be, it had only been a few weeks since he learned that he had a teenage daughter. But the kid was really sweet, shy, more boy-ish than he would have preferred in a little girl, but he supposed he would get used to it. He hoped that the other children at her school wouldn’t be mean to her about it, gender lines were still pretty clear here and he was worried she would have trouble. He was also incredibly worried that he was going to screw this up, badly. Ivan had always figured that if he got married and had children he would have a loving, dutiful wife (who was super gorgeous and adventurous in bed) to help him raise the children. That he, Ivan Vorpatril would end up a single parent like his mother, raising an opposite gendered child, also like his mother, had never occurred to him. And yet, here and now in the next room over was his own flesh and blood. Hell she wasn’t even gene cleaned, it was just his and Chel’s genetic material unadulterated. 

Which scared him, and not just because Chel scared him but because his own genetic background scared him too. It should when such screwballs as Mad Emperor Yuri were in your genetic make-up. He turned off the vid and procrastinated a bit before going to take a shower. He hoped it might help him to feel clean and free up these oppressive thoughts. At least he had his own mother who would jump at the chance to help her granddaughter with woman problems. Ivan wouldn’t have to deal with that. He would have to deal with the suitors when they came. At least Hailey was a little prude, maybe she wouldn’t have suitors for a long while. Ivan knew that shouldn’t fill him with joy, that it wasn’t fair to have double standards for the kid. But was it wrong that he didn’t want some young lout to hurt her? Of course not, that was downright paternal.

He got out of the shower, toweled himself off and pulled on some pajama pants, now that his daughter was living with him he couldn’t just walk around the place naked anymore. Then he decided after a moment to add a shirt, because she did seem very modest. Hell he hadn’t even seen her arms yet and it was summer. Then he figured he ought to check on her because that seemed like a fatherly thing to do which he’d seen on the vids and he was planning on being a good father.

He opened the door to her half painted room, the stuff was quick dry so she could move her stuff in and sleep at night without paint fumes and who knew what other chemicals in them destroying her brain or doing whatever they did. Hailey was asleep, fully dressed except for her shoes, and lying on top of her blankets on the bed. She sat up and looked at him, “is something wrong,” she asked blearily, her voice filled with sleep.

“No, I was just wondering if you were comfortable,” Ivan stated. He tried to hide his surprise, well the kid could do whatever she wanted, he supposed. “just trying to do the fatherly thing,” Ivan explained.

“Oh,” she rubbed her face, “thank you I’m alright.”

“Oh, OK, you know you usually sleep under the covers. Did you need help with the blankets,” Ivan asked uncertainly, “and I thought we brought your clothes over.”

Hailey nodded, “yes, it’s fine, I’ve got it. I was just taking a nap. Thank you Vorpatril,” she said getting up and going to change into her knits.

Ivan allowed himself to be cast out of the room. He considered how lucky he was that he hadn’t had to contend with diaper changing or potty training or the terrible twos or any of the baby stages. Toddlers had seemed awful to him. But when kids hit around 7 or 8 they started to be almost human and they rode tricycles and went to school and played with kites and remote controlled flyers and they could be lots of fun. He’d missed that with Hailey. He’d missed a lot with her and he wanted to fix that, he had to. It was his Vor-ish duty to look after his offspring and right now he only had one. 

 

Chel sat in her private cabin headed first to Komarr and then onwards back to Amnesty’s headquarter’s in Eba quadrant. She had already made a decision about how she would respond to her forcible eviction and Ivan having stolen her daughter. She thought she ought to send a message to her second husband, something that would get him riled up. She thought it fitting to introduce him to Ivan, they were her two biggest regrets in life. Ivan had taken her husband away from her by getting her pregnant; then Ivan had never been around to take care of Hailey growing up and now when the girl was almost a real human being Ivan had swooped in to take Hailey away. Worst of all he and his entire regime were flourishing while she had been humiliated and cast out. 

This feeling of jubilation at the justice of her idea was dampened only by her sense of guilt at having left Hailey behind. Though Chel reminded herself that Hailey was partly to blame for their separation as well; her daughter must have taken the news of her mother’s planetary eviction like a lamb. She must have simply accepted the emperor’s ruling without arguing back on her mother’s behalf. She had neither gone to argue with the emperor to reverse his ruling nor had she been brave enough to sneak out to Chel. Then at least they would be together instead of separated. But Chel couldn’t do everything for Hailey. If the girl wouldn’t even disobey ridiculous rules in order to see her mother then she wasn’t the tiger that Chel needed her to be. Perhaps she belonged with her sheep father, Chel thought. I tried with you I really did, but there was too much wrong with you, she silently told her daughter. 

Thinking about her daughter suddenly opened up an entirely new sense of outrage as Chel thought about the emperor telling her she was a bad parent. How dare he state that because she occasionally used corporal punishment to discipline her child? The man had an entire household to care for his children while Chel was solely in charge of Hailey. It was her job to make a proper person out of the girl and sometimes that required her to perform the less than enjoyable portions of parenting. The other complaint that people often made about Chel raising Hailey was that the girl was so small. One of the pediatricians had even had the nerve to say it was due to ‘failure to thrive’. That bastard of a man had the nerve to blame Chel for Hailey’s height troubles, claiming it was due to psycho-social interactions. He implied, but didn’t have the courage to say that he thought she wasn’t a good mother. What the hell did he know about making a difference in the world or fixing things? Chel was selfless and yet she was always being blamed for something. She was never good enough.

Chel fired up her commconsole and began a letter to be tight-beamed to Kevin her former husband. She paused briefly to consider that he didn’t mind having collateral damage during his missions and that Hailey would likely be in the way. She wrote the letter. Then paused, considering the fate of her only child. Enrico did tell me to look after you, Chel thought. She had no desire to break her word to her first husband. She stood up and walked away from her console to think.

Wrestling with her demons left her feeling conflicted either way. Vorpatril couldn’t get away with humiliating her. Chel had lost so much and so many people during the wars she’d covered. Pride was all she had left, Chel decided. Besides, Hailey had promised not to abandon her. But even after the emperor’s verdict the girl had done nothing to come find her. Clearly Hailey had broken her word to Chel first. 

Chel walked back to her commconsole and sent the message.


	10. Courtships and espionage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hailey and Simon visit a coffee shop. Ivan explains the difference between adultery and treason

It was two days later that Lady Alys went with Hailey to go clothes shopping or more exactly fabric picking and laser fitting. Hailey was rather concerned the woman would pick out some very pink dresses and demand that Hailey wear them. But Lady Alys was actually thoughtful and made her some flattering outfits, including a dress or two in colors Hailey thought she could live with.

“I don’t understand why you won’t wear more dresses, and maybe grow your hair out. You would be so pretty,” one of the younger shop attendants stated. “She’s pretty right now,” Lady Alys corrected, firmly.

Hailey felt herself flush, “I just want to be able to move. A dress might get caught climbing over a fence. How am I supposed to protect my modesty if I have to kick someone in the face?”

Lady Alys had shaken her head, “if you dress the part dear you’ll have men lining up to kick whoever you need to in the face.”

Hailey considered pointing out that in plenty of war-torn places wearing a dress or looking feminine was likely to lead to more trouble than it was worth. Men might be lining up, but it wasn’t necessarily to help you, Hailey thought. Hailey kept this to herself. 

 

After clothes shopping Hailey and Lady Alys returned to the groundcar.

“Christos will be taking us to lunch with Simon. I know you’re upset with him right now but I would like it if you at least spoke to him about it. I think he would be happy to clear things up with you and answer any questions you might have,” Lady Alys noted watching her granddaughter.

They arrived back outside of Lady Alys’s apartment and she paused before they entered.

“You do understand that we care about you and want you to feel safe? If you do get uncomfortable during this talk please tell me and I promise we can go do something else," Lady Alys promised. They walked in and found Simon already in the dining room. Simon stood up from his chair when Lady Alys and Hailey entered and he offered Hailey a diffident smile. They all settled into their chairs.

“Hailey I understand that some of my service history has come to your attention. I wasn’t sure where you would like to begin so I thought I would let you guide the conversation. Did you have any specific questions,” Simon asked.

Hailey managed to drag her eyes from the ground and look Simon in the eye, like Chel had always told her to do. Don’t ever back away from a criminal, if he knows you’re scared he will walk all over you. But she wasn’t afraid of him; Illyan was not an intimidating person though his reputation was. On their previous encounters he had always spoken to her in a warm and gentle tone. It was the idea that she was looking into the face of a second Commander Firenze which bothered her. She felt guilty now when she thought back to how she had sat and eaten chocolates with the man who killed her first step-father. Hailey thought it would be wrong to enjoy this man’s company if he had tortured and killed men just as Firenze killed Enrico. It would be a betrayal to Enrico and the other victims if she overlooked Illyan’s past actions because it made things easier for her. Flustered with these ideas in mind, she turned to Illyan, “but what does Imperial Security do with people who are allergic to fast penta?”

“There are other methods for getting the truth even if the subject is allergic. Bribes, deals, threats of imprisonment, various forms of trickery; it’s not so straightforward as simply asking the subject but I assure you I’ve never cut anyone’s fingers off,” Simon explained.

“Did Barrayar ever sign the Treaty of Farragut?”

“Contrary to our continued poor reputation among the galactic community I assure you that we do not currently manhandle our prisoners of war,” Illyan stated then hesitated, then admitted, “though during the war on Escobar which was headed by Prince Serg and Admiral Vorrutyer that was a dark time.”

Illyan paused then remembering she knew not what, before he visibly shook himself, “I did look through your disk on my supposed files. No, don’t be alarmed, I won’t be demanding any recriminatory actions. Every one of those witnesses is perfectly safe from me. But I do wish to assure you that I never participated in any of their sick games, though I admit I did nothing to stop them. At the time this made sense, now, thirty plus years after the fact I do feel remorse for my inaction. I also promise you that I would never harm an unarmed woman.”

Hailey saw the anguish in his eyes and felt a profound guilt for causing this. But was it true? She wondered briefly about what it would be like if she found Firenze now, would he confess so easily to his past crimes or would he bury them and pretend they hadn’t happened? Perhaps Firenze would justify them away as he had done when she was six. Hailey looked over at Lady Alys who calmly met her eyes.

“I think it’s understandable that you’re reticent to believe everything we tell you now. I know Chel has been a most unreliable source of information for you and I am sure you will need time to decide what information to accept. I also imagine this has a great deal to do with your first stepfather Enrico. I understand from the reports that you saw him executed and I am sure you carry a suspicion against soldiers now. I don’t blame you. My husband was killed right in front of me. We were caught in a crossfire so they weren’t even trying to kill him. This was back during the War of the Pretendership and we were hiding in the capital which had been taken over by Vordarian’s troops. I don’t know how much you know about Barrayaran history but Vordarian was the opposition in this story. But the same day my husband died my son was born and I remember then this rage I felt at the entire idiotic Vor system. I couldn’t stand the sight of the Imperial dress greens for more than a year after his death. I swore that Ivan would never join the military,” Alys stated.

Simon was looking at Lady Alys in concern mixed with confusion. 

She caught the look and smiled a little, “I was young and angry and I only wanted to protect my child when I made that vow. As you know Ivan is now currently a Captain in Imperial Operations. I realized as he grew up that I couldn’t wrap him up in a bubble and hide him away from the world even as much as I wanted to. I also found that I couldn’t keep hating every man who walked past me in uniform because he reminded me of the man who killed my husband. There has to be a point when you realize that all men in uniform are not the same, I can’t judge them all guilty for a crime they didn’t commit. I am not telling you how to think, I’m only asking that you keep an open mind.” Hailey considered this and nodded. She would try to let the evidence speak for itself.

 

Two weeks later and after a long school day in which the children had handed out chocolates to their sweethearts as part of a holiday Hailey was unfamiliar with Arkady, one of the boys in her advanced math class was helping her carry her loot to the car. She was surprised to see Simon Illyan waiting for her by her grandmother's groundcar. 

“I see you’ve made a friend,” Illyan noted a look of interest flashing in his brown eyes, the corners of his mouth ever so slightly raised in the ghost of a smile.

“Arkady and I just ran into each other in the hall and he offered to help me carry my things to the car,” Hailey explained handing her things off to Christos who had also stepped out of the vehicle.

“Literally,” Illyan asked looking Arkady over with interest.

Arkady blinked rapidly and glanced at Hailey, “it’s complicated sir.”

“Isn’t it always,” Illyan breathed, then more loudly, “and did you bring all of these chocolates for our Hailey?”

Arkady looked even more alarmed, “No sir, I didn’t bring any of these for her. They’re all from other people.”

Arkady handed off the boxes to Christos and bolted. Well, really he just walked away quickly, hunched over, without looking back until he got to the safety of his own driver. “I apologize, usually I have to apply a bit more pressure before they flee like that. Here I had thought that you might enjoy an outing with me. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” Illyan stated turning from Arkady’s retreating form back to her.

“No,” she sighed while watching his car pull away, “he really was just being polite. All those chocolates are from girls… I’m still confused about it but I haven’t asked.” 

“Ah, well perhaps we can focus on other things then, I know of an interesting coffee shop I thought you might like to visit.”

Odd, Illyan had always seemed quite introverted to her, she got into the ground car and Illyan followed. Hailey supposed he enjoyed people watching as much as she did, it had been his job for however many years. One would hope he had enjoyed his work. They rode for a bit in a peaceful silence. Their relationship was better than it had been when she had first read the reports about him. But she supposed that they were still virtual strangers to each other. 

“It seems you had an interesting day at school,” Illyan commented.

“Oh, they didn’t call did they,” Hailey asked, it was a knee jerk reaction. 

Calm down, he has no idea you just beat the shit out of some boy, this comment could be directed at Arkady’s appearance. Courtship rituals here seemed to involve a boy making the first move, then being violently threatened by the girl’s family who then allowed her to go out with him provided there was a duenna to accompany them and a set curfew. At least this seemed to be the case for the Vor class, Hailey had no idea if this extended to the middle and lower classes, though she expected that it did not. 

Or it could be over her abysmal grades in Russian literature.

“Were they supposed to,” Illyan asked in an air of polite disinterest that didn’t fool her.

“Lady Alys Vorjaris, my Russian teacher mentioned being concerned about my grade in the class. She says I don’t communicate very well,” Hailey noted.

“That is hardly surprising,” Illyan muttered in Russian before switching back to English, “ah, well I’m sure your lady grandmother will be pleased to know she can do something for you. I’m sure she has a very long list of suitable tutors for that.”

It wasn’t that she had trouble reading or listening, it was the speaking and writing that got to her as it was in every language she picked up. 

They arrived in front of an unexceptional looking coffee shop on a street with a string of other coffee shops. Thanks to Christos’ amazing driving skills no one died horribly while they tried to park.

When she and Illyan entered the host, a man who looked to be in his early 60s with graying hair trimmed short and an athletic body, looked over at them. One corner of his mouth rose.

“It’s always good to have you in sir,” the host stated, his hand twitching only slightly as if he were moving to salute only to abort the motion after, “the boys really look forward to it.”

“It’s hardly a chore, and when she has the time I know Lady Alys enjoys the game as well,” Illyan noted vaguely.

Hailey looked around at the restaurant, the interior was decked out oddly, very un-Barrayaran, the wall decorations and uniforms of the people in the shop all seemed vaguely… Jacksonian? She’d never been but from the news reports this was what she would have expected. Except the faces in those uniforms all looked Barrayaran. 

“Ah, but you’ve brought us a new guest today,” the host noted looking down at Hailey.

“My stepson Ivan’s daughter,” Illyan explained.

“Determined to bring the whole family are you,” the host asked mirthfully.

“Mm I’m afraid after the last incident Ivan has insisted that he will not be back,” Illyan noted dolefully.

“Spoilsport,” the host said but did not extrapolate.

He was about to escort them to a table when Illyan stopped him. 

“Ah, Lucien, are you forgetting something?”

Lucien sighed, “but it’s you sir.”

“I made it a policy for every guest who enters here, I should be included,” Illyan stated patiently.

Lucien sighed and retrieved a scanner from behind his dais which he ran, apologetically, over Hailey and Illyan. 

He then led them over to a table in the corner, away from most of the other patrons but in a position where it was possible to see everyone. A waiter came over unsummoned and offered them a very limited selection of food choices. Illyan accepted a coffee, black, and two puff pastries. Hailey went with a hot chocolate and some egg crèmes.

“Is this going to be like mystery dinner theater,” Hailey asked curiously, “is everyone here an actor?”

Illyan considered this before responding, “hm, they’re not paid actors no. But like an actor their moves, their words, and their overall behavior is under close scrutiny.”

“So this is training…. For what? Are they trying to blend specifically into a Jacksonian environment or is the background interchangeable? Is everyone here Barrayaran?”

“The background as you call it was chosen specifically for this group of individuals though there are different ones and yes everyone is Barrayaran here. This building is owned by Imperial Security and is used as a training facility for our personnel. A typical training simulation as we see today involves a number of our trainees sent to watch and record the activities of specific targets, also ImpSec agents. Not all of those present are on a mission, many individuals in this shop are merely bodies to distract and take up space. They are extras who are present here to add confusion just as in the field. There will also be local police personnel who will patrol and cause trouble, in this case in the form of arrest bids. There might be some theatrics, I assure you people are never harmed during these sessions… deliberately,” Illyan explained.

Hailey accepted all of this information and looked around at the people in shock, “But is it, is it alright that I’m here then? This seems like it should be top secret.”

Illyan raised an eyebrow, “who are you going to tell?”

Hailey thought about that. It seemed her family and friends were currently all high ranking government officials, or related to such officials, and if Ivan and Lady Alys already knew about this place, well Hailey supposed there was nothing to say.

She shrugged, “no one I guess.”

Illyan leaned in and pointed to a young-ish man with blonde hair dressed in a style similar to all the rest.

“You see how he is attempting to fake a conversation with the brunnete across from him but spends a great deal of time glancing across the room at the man with the staff. That is a rookie error, if I can see you watching your target then others will see it too. The trick is to watch and listen without being too obvious,” Illyan explained.

Illyan then stood up, “you, blonde with the red gauntlets on. You’ve been made! Get lost.”

The young man sat bolt upright and looked at Illyan, his face transformed briefly into one of disappointment before two large men in House Ryoval colors came out and clapped hands on him before dragging him out. 

“Wow, but, what would happen if you were wrong, would the guards still come out and take him away,” Hailey asked.

Illyan shook his head and sat back down, “no the officer on duty will correct me these days. After the accident they would humor me, fortunately that has stopped.”

“Accident,” Hailey asked.

Illyan blinked, “ah, here I had thought Ivan would have filled you in by now... It’s nothing to worry about. I function well enough in spite of it. I’ll show you where the caught spies end up later.”

Another older man in one of the corner booths then stood up and called out another cadet who was dragged off. This game went on for a little over an hour with senior training officers calling out the cadets as they made mistakes. Hailey even diffidently offered up hypotheses on trainees versus the fill ins. Illyan smiled in amusement, “did you want to call him out?”

Hailey shook her head.

Illyan stood up, “You, black hair, green sleeves, you’ve been caught!”

The man in question sighed, “it Billet, sir,” he said before being carted off.

“How often does this occur,” Hailey asked.

“The shop is open four or so days a week with different classes present, these are the midgrade students today with a few months of surveillance training,” Illyan explained. The game continued another fifteen minutes before a senior official called time, “The time is seventy-two minutes from the start of the training session and all trainees have been removed.”

“I don’t understand why Ivan didn’t want to come back with you, this is very exciting,” Hailey offered.

“I fear I let it slip that he worked in Ops and the boys decided to treat him like the other captured spies,” Illyan admitted. Hailey judged from Illyan’s dancing eyes and the shadow of a smile that the slip might have been less than accidental.

“Come, let me show you what we do with them,” Illyan said getting up. Hailey followed him into the back rooms where the most recent recruit was just then climbing out of a large tub filled with neon orange goo, one of the fake guards offered him a towel. All of them came to attention as they noticed Illyan. 

“Neither I nor the former regent were fans of corporal punishment the way the late Emperor Ezar was but we sought to establish a punishment the men would respect. Being dunked into a tank of orange hm, goo was considered an effective means of both embarrassing them and motivating the men to try harder the next time. No one wants to be the fellow with carrot orange skin. At ease men, you forget I’m no longer an actual member of Imperial Sevices,” Illyan stated almost wistfully.

“But what is the goo,” Hailey asked looking more closely at it. 

“Oh, the base is an instant vanilla pudding mixed with modified cornstarch and orange food coloring, it’s completely edible,” the recruit who had just exited the tub explained leaning back over it and sliding one finger into it and then inserting it into his mouth, “completely edible.”

Illyan just stared at him, “trainee, I cannot imagine you have gone through all of that schooling to only now find out that you should not put strange chemicals in your mouth. Particularly when twelve men before you have been dunked in that.”

The recruit turned a shade of red under his shade of orange and said no more. One of the guards had a look of exasperation on his own face.

After the other recruits had been given time to hide or come forward to gush over Illyan much like a celebrity they headed for the door. At the last minute one more fellow came up to speak with Illyan. Hailey excused herself and headed to the car. It was quite impressive that Illyan seemed to have such fanfare, she had never thought of a chief of intelligence being so… appreciated? She wasn’t sure it was love per se but definitely respected. Hailey pondered the oddities of human social contact as they headed back Ivan’s apartment.

 

When they arrived the found Ivan seated at the kitchen table facing the door. He got up as the entered.

“Hailey, did something happen at school today,” Ivan asked in concern.

Hailey paused and considered the question, “did my Russian teacher call?”

“Yes. But I also got a call from your vice-principal. Did you stab someone with a stylus?”

Hailey glanced between Illyan and Ivan. Ivan looked very upset while Illyan had returned to his look of polite disinterest.

“Well, yes... but I didn’t want to hurt him. He surprised me and I jerked up and – well it wasn’t a very deep wound,” Hailey tried to explain, “and I said I was sorry.” “Hailey, honey, I’m going to ask you a question and whatever the answer is that’s alright and we’ll work through this together. I’m not trying to embarrass you but… are you being bullied at school,” Ivan asked.

Hailey shrugged, “not really, it was just Boris.”

“What happened,” Ivan asked gently.

“Well he only started after he found out that I was related to you. Apparently you were…. With his mother some time ago while she was married to his father. He said that you were the reason his parents split and that-“ Hailey sniffled.

“Oh, hey, come here, it’s okay,” Ivan said pulling her into a hug. He rubbed her back a little while then set her on the couch with a glass of water before they continued.

“Well he said that you would sleep with any woman or possibly any farm animal given enough time. So I called him a liar and then we traded insults and then he took a swing and I was holding the stylus. I feel bad about it but he shouldn’t say things like that about you.

“Well that is true, because I would only sleep with them if I had permission,” Ivan explained firmly.

“Wait, Vorpatril, you would sleep with a cow if it gave you permission? How does that even happen,” Hailey asked in confusion. 

“Well I meant the women part and not, not the animals. Really you think that little of me that you think I would sleep with animals,” Ivan asked.

“So you would sleep with any woman anywhere at anytime as long as she was willing? So it doesn’t matter if she’s married or insane and hallucinating? You would just go for it? Did you really ruin the Vortugala’s marriage?”

“Well, to be fair their marriage was already on the rocks to begin with and they were probably going to get a divorce anyway,” Ivan defended.

“I don’t understand. In school we learned that back in the Time of Isolation women didn’t make fealty oaths to the emperor. They did it to their husbands so they wouldn’t have to choose between siding with their husbands or the emperor if the two ended up on different sides of a revolution. So in a way, a woman who commits adultery is committing treason against her liege lord. Why would you encourage this,” Hailey asked.

“Oh, well I do not encourage adultery because it’s ok for women to break their oaths, I’m not saying that. In fact I do not encourage anyone to commit adultery, but I mean if a woman were in the mood for adultery and she happened to be interested in me then I wouldn’t necessarily say no,” Ivan explained.

“Unless her husband was standing close by with a loaded fire arm,” Illyan added in Russian, clearly meant for Ivan’s ears only. 

“So if a woman happened to be interested in treason and you happened to be there then you wouldn’t necessarily say no,” Hailey asked, was it just that a woman had to be doing it?

“No! No that is not at all what I am saying, Simon help me out,” Ivan said.

“Why, you’re doing such a good job of hanging yourself without me,” Simon muttered, still in Russian.

“Be serious, what the hell am I supposed to tell her? Some sacred oaths are more important than others? God, I have no idea what I’m doing,” Ivan griped in Russian.

“What I’d like to know is what you would do if the woman was both attractive, interested and treasonous,” Illyan goaded in Russian. He seemed to be enjoying this.

Illyan switched to English for Hailey, “Jay walking and homicide are both technically illegal. However, with jaywalking it is rare that something terrible happens as a result of it. Whereas homicide is always considered a tragedy. Well, perhaps not always… allow me to try again. Consider that adultery is both a tradition and relatively common among the Vor who still do not divorce their partners in any great number. Since dueling has been made illegal the danger of adultery has been removed and it is typically viewed as rude but not necessarily life shattering to the affected parties. This is why I suspect Ivan thinks it’s alright to engage in it. Treason however is neither fun nor socially accepted, so Ivan does not engage in it.”

“Oh, so really it just goes back to comfort,” Hailey said, beginning to understand.

“Way to throw me under the groundcar,” Ivan muttered in Russian.

“I thought it was the most accurate explanation without being the most brutal. I could have told her it’s because your too lazy or stupid to find more intellectual hobbies. Canoodling your neighbor’s wife takes very little brain power,” Illyan noted in Russian.

“Hey! There is a lot of planning and effort that goes into my pursuit! First I have to convince her to talk to me then I have-" Ivan paused, glanced over at Hailey and began again in English, “I appreciate that you were trying to defend my honor but it’s really not necessary. From now on if someone is being mean to you I’d really prefer it if you told one of your instructors, or me instead of deciding to brawl, alright? I’d rather you were safe and my honor was in pieces rather than the other way around.”

Hailey nodded and Ivan kissed her on the forehead. Then looked up to see Christos had finally trundled up the stairs with Hailey’s loot. “Where are these from,” Ivan asked.

“From my classmates, they were handing out chocolate to each other. I didn’t realize I was supposed to do this,” Hailey frowned. 

“Boys have been giving you chocolate, on St Valentine’s day,” Ivan demanded hysterically.

“No, they’re from girls,” Hailey clarified.

“Girls have been giving you chocolates for Valentines day,” Ivan asked clearly confused now, “but wait, I, are you…? I don’t remember that being a friendly gesture. Is that a girl thing?”

Hailey shrugged, “I guess, Gertrude Vorstufel says it’s because I dress boy-ishly so it’s like they’re talking to a boy. Except I’m not really a boy so they won’t get into trouble with their fathers and since I’m a girl I’m much easier to talk to. I also got invited to an upcoming dance by one of the girls. I was thinking about being violently sick that week since I’m not sure I want to go.” 

“That’s great,” Ivan said looking to Simon. Both men wore a look that Hailey had dubbed the “we need to ask Lady Alys about this” face. 

 

She was running again, this time through caves, passing a magnificent waterfall with diamond rocks which sparkled under it as the water sloshed down casting rainbows every which way. The scene was undercut by the heavy booted stomps of her aggressor. She looked down the corridor to see a creature, human in form but moving in a bizarre fashion with joints bending in unnatural ways that made her sick. She turned and saw that there was no way back. The exit had been suddenly closed up silently while she’d been watching him. Now there was only the entrance he was coming through to get in or out. So are you going to just stand there and wait for him to come to you, she asked herself. Better to get it over with one way or another she decided. She still only had her knife and she could tell even in the shadows the killer passed through that he was carrying two very large swords dripping in blood. No one else was coming. They were all dead. She roared and charged. And suddenly when she thought she’d run him through or he had finished her off he vanished abruptly and she was left alone in the room. A shadow fell on her. No he wasn’t dead or gone. He had been there all along she realized as a fresh fear shot through her. She turned to the killer as he reached out and grabbed her arm. He was bigger than her but lean. Both eyes were missing; they were replaced with caverns full of blood that streamed down the sockets. Scars ran across what she could see of his body under the nondescript jumpsuit he wore.

Hailey sat up in her bed in Ivan’s apartment and shivered. She thought then of Chel and how she hadn’t heard from her mother since the woman had been exiled. Hailey had sent the woman several tight beams but had received nothing in response. She couldn’t tell if she ought to worry that her mother had done something to herself. Perhaps not, perhaps Chel was enjoying being childless after fifteen years and Hailey was being ridiculous.

She looked around her room, glad that she’d used the glow in the dark paint so it wasn’t so dark. Though she was sure that Ivan would have bought her a night light if she had asked; she’d noted that he had one in his room one night. When she asked about it he got embarrassed and mentioned that he didn’t like small dark places but didn’t elaborate. It was nice to live with someone who could get embarrassed without immediately lashing out at anyone and everyone in the area. Ivan and his family were still very kind to her even after several weeks of living with them. Even though the honeymoon period was over they hadn’t started talking to her about boarding schools or other means of getting her out of their hair. Lady Alys had even found her a private nutritionist after the pediatrician had noted that there was no physical reason for Hailey being so small.

But Hailey still didn’t feel right. She thought then of the safety videos played before each Jumpship take off. They always told the passenger that in a case of emergency she was supposed to put on her own air-mask on before helping anyone else. But what if I can’t breathe easily if the other person isn’t wearing their mask first, she thought? What if I need her to be able to breathe before I can? Hailey wondered if she would get used to not having Chel around. Hailey really wished her mother would send her some kind of response so Hailey would know that she was alright.


	11. Family dinners and killer robots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivan tries to figure out his parenting style. Kevin (OMC) arrives on Barrayar to start causing problems
> 
> Also I stole a line from Joan D Vinge's Cat series

Kevin had received a tightbeam from his wife four weeks ago stating that she wanted to get back together. But she had offended the Barrayaran regime and was afraid that they would throw her in prison. She gave him two addresses to look into so that he could find her. Kevin had gone to the first one, a shabby little apartment on Vorbarra Sultana’s east side. She couldn’t have been happy with that, Kevin decided. Chel would definitely have preferred coming home with him to their old three story house just outside the capitol of Oakham on Pennmen. He had asked the apartment management here about her and they had told him this bizarre story about her vanishing one night. She had left behind nothing but this life sized doll and her little girl, according to the clown at the security desk. Kevin hadn’t gotten violent, not then, but he wasn’t happy. 

Six years he’d spent waiting for her to come back. He had filled his time with his job and a number of girls. But none of them held his interest the way Chel had. They didn’t love him the way Chel had and he didn’t love them the way he loved Chel. Sure she’d sent him divorce papers long ago, but he’d never signed them. Because he loved her and wasn’t ready to let go. And she loved him or she wouldn’t have sent that letter all those weeks ago. 

Kevin hadn’t believed it at first, in fact he’d gone downstairs to that ass Richardson’s cubicle and damn near knocked the other man's teeth out. Turns out Richardson hadn’t been mocking him. The nerds down in forensics confirmed the imprint for the credit chit used to pay for the mail delivery came from a Chel Mujica. His wife, his lover, the only woman he thought about, even while screwing all the other ones. It was a simple enough letter. In it Chel apologized for running out on him, begged him for forgiveness and asked him to come find her on Barrayar. She had also stated that she was leaving Hailey with her biological father, Ivan Vorpatril. Chel had written that Hailey was the reason she’d run out on him. Now Chel was getting rid of Hailey so they could be together. Fine by him, he’d never liked the little bitch anyway. She was too much of a smartass for him. He’d tried to correct that, but there was only so much a man could do before child protective services got in the way. She’d ratted on him more than once, he remembered. His hand balled into a fist, but then he let it go. Not that it mattered now he told himself, he was getting rid of her so that he and Chel could be together. If only he could find Chel. 

Kevin knew this Vorpatril was high on the political totem pole from what he’d read on the flight over. A flight he’d had to schedule with his boss. He'd had to practically beg for the time off, something a man should never have to do. 

“Please, it’s my wife Chel, she finally wants to get back together, I need her," he had explained to his boss. 

His boss had nodded finally, “if you think she’s serious about it, though six years is a long time for this to suddenly come up.”

Kevin had wanted to smash his boss in the face for questioning Chel like that. But that would have gotten him in trouble. It would have led to questions with the doctors and maybe another visit to the crazy farm. He wasn’t going back there. He also wasn’t going back to anger management and he was done with the psych meds. He just had to regulate himself a little. Not that it was his fault when he put someone in their place. They always had it coming and he had always been taught to stand up for himself. But sometimes, well sometimes, it wasn’t socially acceptable, which was dumb. He was a police officer, people should realize that he was a good guy. He was there to serve and protect them. So they should give him a little respect, and not lock him up on some ward or talk to him about controlling his actions. He was plenty controlled damn it. It was everyone else who needed to get their shit together. But there was the old saying, in the land of the blind the one eyed man is stoned. So he just had to suck it up each and every day. He had to be the martyr for everyone around him. He realized he was hyperventilating, he stopped these thoughts and calmed down. Casually he reopened the door to the stairwell from the rooftop and headed down. He was 6’6” and could bench press over 300lbs, no genetic mods needed just good old hard work and dedication. Maybe he’d go visit Vorpatril’s place next, he had Ivan’s address too.

 

Kevin was mad, and not just the usual mild rage he felt at everyone else’s incompetence mad. He was almost blinded with rage. He’d found Vorpatril's place. But he had also found that Vorpatril's house was surrounded by both obvious and not so obvious security personnel. Of course he would be, pampered little Vor brat, no doubt some prissy man-boy, Kevin decided. But he couldn't hide forever and when Vorpatril ended up in the open Kevin would be there to destroy him. Kevin hung around the building one morning. He bought coffee from the little shop across the street and pretended to read the morning news.

There had been a time when he’d been considered for Special Services. He’d washed out because he didn’t have the patience to just follow some bastard around for several days or weeks or months. No, he was a man of action and he needed action. They’d called him hot-headed. So what if he didn’t want to sit on his ass and watch terrorists wreak havoc around him? There were lesser men for that. They could just call him in when something needed to get done, he’d told the director that. The director had told him to get lost. The director had used some choice words and Kevin had been forcibly escorted from the building. 

Well wouldn’t that asshole be impressed by his work now. The director would surely be impressed by the false calmness Kevin showed while flipping through his vidnews and pretending to look at current events. Boring local bullshit he didn’t care about. But Kevin kept at it. He was trying to find the bastard who his wife had gone to see. What if she had moved in with him? What if they’d reconciled over the kid and she was staying with him? 

Kevin didn’t know much. He didn’t have many contacts here. Just the fence who’d gotten him the nerve disruptor. But he had to be careful with that here. Just because he was a police officer back home didn’t mean they’d respect that here. Likely the pretty boys here would just try to mess with him. He saw a couple of guys leave the building, all spruced up for work. He couldn’t tell if it was or wasn’t Vorpatril and that made him mad.

This asshole might be screwing his wife and Kevin couldn’t even find him to beat the crap out of him. He waited a while, getting angrier and angrier. Until he saw the kid. Yeah, not even five feet tall with short black hair, there was his little dyke. If she’d been a puppy she would have been the runt of the litter and most likely to die. Her mother was a taller woman, not as big as him, but tall. The father was supposed to be tall too, though not as tall as Kevin either. So what the hell was wrong with her? 

It made Kevin mad when things didn’t work out like they were supposed to. He was supposed to be with his wife. He was supposed to have been promoted by now, but those assholes in charge were now passing him over for fucking rookies. This kid was supposed to grow but she insisted on being a shrimp. If she would just try a little harder and eat something, and if she weren’t so damn likely to flinch, like an animal that had been hit too much or not enough, then maybe she would be a normal height and he wouldn’t have to be so angry with her. He watched the little bitch get into a car with a woman in it. He almost blew his cover jumping up and racing out, only to notice that the woman in the car was too old to be his wife. Fucking crone, who did she think she was, Kevin raged? Kevin didn’t know her, but Kevin hated her too.

 

Hailey walked into the restaurant and found her father sitting with another man.

“You know By, one of these days I might just take you up on that offer just to see your smug face,” Ivan declared to the dark haired man who sat across from him. Ivan’s back was to Hailey as she walked in.

“Ivan what’s going on,” Hailey asked.

Ivan turned around, “I can explain,” he said.

“Your father and I are lovers, we hope that’s alright,” the other man said batting his eyelashes at Ivan with a smirk on his face.

“Oh that’s so sweet. I don’t know why you would hide this from me. You know I just want you to be happy,” Hailey informed Ivan who looked peeved. She wondered if he remembered those words from their previous conversation when he’d tried to talk to her about her sexuality and assured her that it was alright if she was gay.

“Scram Byerly,” Ivan growled at the other man.

Byerly looked offended, “what? But you haven’t even properly introduced us. When I heard about your darling little girl and all the rumors flying around town I just had to come see for myself.”

“You’ve seen her, now you can go,” Ivan insisted.

“You don’t have to be ashamed of him, it’s alright. Though if he's serious about you he should probably propose marrage to you properly. I remember something in school about a bride price.” Hailey said. Maybe this would distract from her letter from the school, she hoped.

“Hailey, do not encourage the man,” Ivan moaned, rubbing his temples.

“But of course! I’m sure I can find you some goats and a few pounds of gold for Ivan's hand in marriage,” Byerly promised.

“Oh, and we probably want to stay away from rings, you know, it’s no good for two people to start their new life together with conflict diamonds,” Hailey continued, sliding in opposite Ivan and next to Byerly.

“Hmm perhaps we could get matching tattoos like the Cetagandans,” By offered.

“No, that seems too mundane somehow,” Hailey sighed, “what about a picture of the other person’s face on your chest?”

“Or a tramp stamp,” By suggested getting into the game.

“I like it,” Hailey agreed, “now how do you people get married? I’m sure we can find a count around here somewhere to marry you two. I mean I guess they don’t technically allow same-sex marriages at the moment but maybe one of you could get disguised as a woman. The wedding still counts even if you’re in drag, right?”

“Looks like there’s no reason not to now. But do I still need to ask for Lady Alys’s blessing before I propose,” By asked.

“Or try asking Simon,” Ivan growled, “and even if you did and he said yes I would refuse.”

By sighed, “it's awfully cruel of you to string me along only to publicly break up with me now.”

“Yeah Vorpatril, how am I supposed to learn what a healthy relationship is with you behaving like this towards your lover,” Hailey asked.

“Byerly is not my lover,” Ivan barely kept himself from shouting, “Byerly is an emotionally troubled and highly volatile town clown who tried to get me killed the last few times we bumped into each other. Trust me, I try to avoid him as best I can and you should too. Stay far away from him. If you see him then just run fast in the opposite direction.”

“Before or after we get something to eat,” Hailey asked finally looking at the menu. 

Ivan huffed, “After I guess,” he did not yell at Byerly to leave again and the man did not drift off. Instead he ordered with them.

“Ivan tells me you’ve been beating up boys,” Byerly offered, “most un-Vorpatril of you.”

“Yeah? If they didn’t want to get stabbed they should have moved faster,” Hailey said.

“Or you could find an adult, there’s no shame in that,” Ivan said reasonably, “no reason to risk life and limb when there’s a safe alternative nearby.”

“I dunno Ivan, I was always told to go big or go home,” Hailey noted

“Words that many a Vor lord has lived by,” Byerly agreed.

“Or died by in a hail of plasma arc fire,” Ivan muttered and then more audibly, “how was the volunteer work today?”

Hailey did arts and crafts on certain evenings with the pediatric patients at Vorbarra Sultana General Hospital. Ivan sometimes dropped by and helped out, or got distracted and flirted with the nurses. But he tried really hard not to while Hailey was there. It was just a habit and they kept mooning over him.

“It was alright, nurse Helga wanted me to give you her card,” Hailey said pulling the thing out of her bag.

“Which one is that one,” Ivan asked accepting it.

“The pretty blonde one with the blue lipstick and the high pitched laugh,” Hailey noted.

“I see you’ve got the child working the system for you,” By noted with a smirk. 

Ivan frowned, “I do not make Hailey work the system for me… it just happens! Anyway, Hailey how was your day at school,” Ivan asked pocketing the number.

She took time drinking from her water glass before answering, “well they weren’t very happy with my science fair project.”

Ivan frowned, “well you spent all of last week working on it. It looked very impressive. What happened, did it not turn on?”

“No it turned on just fine. In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have given it an artificial intelligence system and a high powered laser.”

“You just give the kid this stuff,” Byerly demanded.

“Just the chip for the AI system, the rest of it was made out of the household appliances. Hailey are you telling me that I’m not getting my toaster oven back,” Ivan demanded.

“The headmistress said that a laser that strong wasn’t legal in the hands of private citizens so it had to be confiscated by the municipal guard. I mean really it was the fault of those boys messing with it. Naturally the robot was bound to react violently,” Hailey continued.

“Wait, what? Was anybody hurt,” Ivan asked.

“Well no, I mean the robot took a bunch of people hostage for a while but then Mr Woolville tried to make a break for it and that distracted the robot long enough so I could unplug it. It was a good thing I didn’t give it a battery pack like I’d been initially planning or we would have been in real trouble,” Hailey explained, “and nobody thanked me for saving the day.”

“After you almost built the robot that-“ Ivan cut himself off. His mother had told him to not be hypercritical of Hailey since the kid was already tense enough. 

Ivan took a deep breath, “well, why wasn’t I called about this?”

“Simon came down instead.”

Ivan winced, “oh, well I hope he wasn’t too hard on you.”

“He said it was alright and that considering that I am related to Miles he wasn’t surprised that this would happen. Then he said you were an idiot for not properly supervising me. I don’t really think that’s fair,” Hailey noted.

Ivan sat there dumbstruck for a moment before speaking again in a voice between commanding and hysterical, “you are absolutely forbidden to run away from home and start your own army of mercenaries.”

“I wasn’t planning on doing that,” Hailey stated in confusion.

“Neither was Miles from what I understand. When is your cousin coming back to wreak havoc upon fair Vorbarra Sultana,” By asked.

“It should be another week or two, I suppose. He and Ekaterin went on a second honeymoon to make up for the first one that got interrupted. Naturally this one was as disastrous as the first one. Their ship got hijacked by space pirates. Miles of course talked his way out of this and considered recommending the pirates to the Dendarii as new recruits,” Ivan explained. 

The two men stared off into space contemplating Hailey knew not what.

“Did you also build these monstrosities with your mother,” Byerly asked curiously, turning back to Hailey.

Hailey shrugged and looked away, “no, I would have gone with something small and simple.”

Ivan didn’t know how to respond to that but in that instant his wristcomm went off. It was his mother. He was going to ignore it but Miles blast him, had shown Lady Alys how to override that system. Her voice came out of his wristcomm though he didn’t push any buttons.

“How could you let my granddaughter run around with a killing machine,” his mother demanded.

“Excuse me I have to take this,” Ivan stated scampering outside to answer this call. 

“So how is Ivan doing at the parenting thing,” Byerly asked into the silence.

“He’s fine. He tries anyway,” Hailey said suddenly noticing a very disapproving face turn to her.

Lady Angelica Votrefinnis had entered the restaurant only a few minutes ago. She had a coterie of other women in tow and had only now noticed Hailey. Hailey supposed that several weeks of avoiding each other in the tight high Vor circles was probably pushing it, they were bound to see each other again.

Lady Angelica Votrefinnis separated herself from her pack and stormed over to them, “you, do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me?”

“I can always make it worth your while if you’d like to come home with me,” Byerly offered with a wink.

Lady Angelica’s mouth dropped open then closed in a snarl, “I beg your pardon.”

“I apologize for my um, friend, what he means is that it might be best at this current time if we just ignored each other. Forever,” Hailey suggested amicably

“Ignore each other? Not after what you did to me! You know my husband-to-be was invited to Emperor Gregor’s most recent diplomatic soiree. It was unsurprising considering Gareth's high position in intergalactic intelligence. Well I was there and the topic of Vorpatril came up and of course I mentioned you. Do you know what the emperor said to me when I mentioned you? Do you?”

“Stop being crazy,” Hailey offered helpfully.

“He asked me how much I’d been drinking then suggested that I go find my partner as I didn’t seem capable of composing myself in a lady-like manner at the time. I was so mortified! Do you know how often Gregor speaks directly to me? And that’s what he said? Poor Gareth had to explain it away as pre-wedding jitters,” Lady Angelica declared.

“If that’s wedding jitters I don’t want to see what you’re planning for the wedding,” By murmured.

“You know, burn down the church, poison the guests, murder the groom and wear his skin as a suit, the usual,” Hailey offered snarkily. 

“How dare you,” Angelica almost shouted, a vein on her head popping out, “I don’t know how or why your mother managed to couple with Ivan and produce some bastard offspring but I find it abhorrent that you’ve been allowed to sneak around in our society. You’re not even Vor, you don’t have the values or the manners or even the proper way of thinking. Who do you think you’re fooling? They might as well have dressed a chimp up in Vorpatril house colors and let it loose to roam the streets.” Angelica Votrefinnis declared.

Hailey sighed, “you’re right I’m sorry. See I never learned manners because my mother kept me locked in the attic for the past fifteen years and fed me nothing but raw fish heads. Do you know what that’s like? I understand it’s an honor in some cultures to get the head. But really, after a while a person gets tired of any food, even fish heads. Do you know what it’s like biting into a fish eye? They're actually not as squishy as you might expect. In fact they’re kind of like eating grapes. Except you know, less sweet and more fishy. Speaking of which, Byerly, do you think we can order dessert without Ivan? I think I would like the fruit parfait right now.”

Lady Angelica had the most horrified look on her face, “there is something deeply wrong with you.”

“You know if you keep making that face, it’s going to get stuck like that,” By advised, “oh shoot, it already has.”

Lady Angelica glared daggers at them both but fled back to the safety of her gaggle.

“You know I get called an abomination on a frequent basis and I even grew up under this system,” Byerly offered after silence had fallen between them.

Hailey shrugged, “it doesn’t matter. I’m going to the bathroom. If I don’t come back avenge my death,” Hailey said sliding out of the booth and getting up.

“Well alright, but I’m eating your food,” By called out cheerfully. 

Hailey had returned to find the two men once more in low toned conversation. Byerly had stayed a few more minutes before saying his farewells. Only when the bill came did Ivan realize that Byerly had left everything on his tab. This had lead to a great deal of sotto voce swearing on Ivan’s part about that damn ImpSec weasel. That also answered the question of what Byerly did for a living, Hailey thought.


	12. Nerve disruptors and elevators

Only a few days later and after some inveigling Ivan allowed Hailey to convince him that his temporary house arrest for her killer robot fiasco could be put on hold. Her history class was taking a weekday trip to the Time of Isolation festival which was only in town for a few weeks. The students had been broken up into groups and were given a list of historical figures to find and talk to around the park and then write a report about what they had learned. But really people just ate copious amounts of food and hung out by the games or the jousting ring. Hailey was off with her group looking for somebody or another, maybe Vorthalia the Bold? Unless they had already found him... she frowned while looking down at her list. She was going to have to ask Ivan for help with this assignment, Hailey decided. Her little group made their way around a pack of colorful tents when she bumped into someone.

“Excuse me,” she said looking up from her list of people to talk to. It was then that Hailey came face to face with He-Who-We-Must-Not-Mention. Her breath caught and she looked over at her team members who had also stopped.

“What are you doing here, Kevin,” she asked carefully.

Kevin smiled down at her. He was wearing a Barrayaran style jacket, something a little too warm for this summer day. He brushed the bottom hem of his shirt up slightly so she could catch a glance of the nerve disruptor holstered in his trousers. It was a pity that the park didn’t have plasma sensors set up at its entrances. It was also a pity that Ivan had talked her out of wearing her knife everywhere. Not that it would do much good here.

“Hailey, you know I think it’s rude when you call adults by their first names,” Kevin corrected calmly.

“Sorry sir,” she said automatically, she turned to her group. They were all also fresh faced fifteen year old children, no match for this tank of a man. It would be better to minimize casualties then she decided.

She smiled at them, “this is one of my mother’s husbands. I just wanted to talk to him for a few minutes. Maybe I can catch up to you guys at the next exhibit.”

They glanced at each other wondering if this was allowed. Olga spoke, “well alright, and if you want my notes I can let you borrow them later.”

“Yeah, definitely. I’m sure this won’t take more than a few minutes,” Hailey lied. 

The little group nodded and trooped away.

“That was surprisingly useful of you,” Kevin noted. He reached over to grab her she flinched back. He caught her shirt and pulled her forward before putting an arm around her. “You know I don’t approve of your constant flinching. It’s not like I’m going to hit you right now. We’re just going to take a little walk you and I,” Kevin stated.

Kevin was tall, blonde, muscular and handsome, the way Apollo might look were he to descend to earth. Women gazed at him adoringly though they wouldn’t if they knew him better. He walked easily, a hand clamped on the back of her shirt, a safeguard against her trying to make a break for it. 

“Your mother sent me a message several weeks back telling me that she was leaving you with your father here on Barrayar and she was ready to move back in with me. Only problem is that I went to her apartment and I haven’t seen her there. Then I went to your father’s apartment and I couldn’t find her there. Now what do you know about that?” Truth or lie, she wondered. She hesitated. They were walkng past more booths now, heading away from the center and towards the outskirts of the park. Fewer witnesses, Hailey noted vaguely. Do I scream or not, she wondered noticing a pair of bored Imperial guards. If I yell how likely is Kevin to draw his weapon and solve things with a violent shoot out? “I try to be a patient man,” Kevin growled, “but it’s awful hard when you behave like this.”

“Sorry sir, it’s just that I don’t know where to start the story,” Hailey explained. 

There seemed to be a lot of children out despite it being the middle of the week. Hell there always were when there was free candy and amusement rides set up for the occasion. Draw attention or not, she debated. How much do you trust him to react reasonably? Not at all, she decided.

“You know if you’re going to bullshit me with a long story to try and distract me, confuse me or trick me I can always get information from one of the others. Would that pack of blonde girls you were with be forthcoming with information? Maybe I’d have to shoot one to show that I meant business,” Kevin noted casually.

“Wouldn’t that violate your oath as an officer of the law,” she asked. It was a stupid question.

Kevin had once explained one of his jobs in Special Forces was to break into the homes of suspected terrorists and drag them out in the middle of the night. He freely admitted that he had shot a few who’d resisted arrest if he thought they were putting his team in danger. I didn’t have time for niceties dumbass, you think we could just sit down and talk about it, he had asked her. You think we should be discussing our fucking feelings, Kevin had demanded when she had questioned him. He’d smacked her across the head for that. Not the most violent thing he’d ever done to her.

“You trying to tell me how to do my job? Are you that fucking stupid,” he demanded angrily, his hand painfully tight around her arm and he gave her a shake. Kevin was speaking to her in Italian and while the people around them didn’t necessarily know what was being said they understood the angry tones of voice and the gestures. The response of the crowd was to look away and walk around the spectacle of a man scolding and manhandling his child. And why not, Kevin wasn’t her father but he could pass for it without DNA tests. People didn’t want to get involved in that, she reasoned. 

“Sorry sir, no sir, I take it back, you know much more than I do,” she backpedaled. 

How many casualties am I worth, she wondered. Kevin wouldn’t draw his weapon unless he thought he had to. He didn’t want to kill anyone unnecessarily, but he wasn’t opposed to it if the collateral damage meant that he’d get what he wanted. 

“Well, come on, where is your mother and don’t lie or I’ll know and then you’ll really have something to flinch about,” he threatened.

“Sorry sir, I just don’t think you’re going to like the truth. She left abruptly. She’s been gone for-“ Hailey was abruptly cut off.

They were by the bathrooms now; stone buildings erected to prevent horrible gastronomical accidents from being dumper upon the local flora. Only problem was that they were currently closed for renovation. A poor time choice to be sure for more than one group involved. They provided a solid structure to hide behind and limited the number of people meandering this way. No food and no bathrooms meant everyone was situated on the other side of the park, unless you were looking for parking. But anyone familiar with Vorbarra Sultana traffic had likely tubed in. 

Kevin had no problem shoving Hailey roughly against the stone structure, away from the eyes of people. At least most people. A couple saw them. They saw Kevin hit her and they ran off without a word, not wanting to get involved in whatever was going on. 

“You think you can lie to me? You think I’m stupid,” he demanded, pulling the nerve disruptor out and pressing it to her chest, “go on, lie to me one more time. See what I’ll do, see what you’ll make me do. You think you’re funny? You think it’s cute to pour water on a drowning man? I’ll fucking show you. I will end you. And then I’ll go back and I’ll shoot the others, then I’m going to hunt daddy down. Oh, you’re listening now? Yes I know what Ivan fuck-face Vorpatril looks like now, nothing but a pretty boy who prances around like a homo and still manages to attract women. That’s what’s wrong with this planet.”

“Ok, ok, I lied to you, I shouldn’t have, but, I mean if I tell you I’ll get in trouble,” Hailey said.

“If you don’t tell me I will end your cowardly little existence. Where is my wife?”

“She came here to drop me off with my father. But she also came here to interview the emperor. You know, like those other rulers she interviewed before for Amnesty, you remember? Right, well she talked to Emperor Gregor and she got her information. Only he wasn’t too pleased with her interviewing technique. You know how sometimes she made you mad when she asked all those questions and you said she’d get in trouble for her mouth one day? Well she did, and she didn’t have you here to save her like you did all those other times. So he threw her in the dungeons of the Imperial Security building. My father promised it would be for just a few days so she’d learn her lesson. He said that I shouldn’t make a big deal about it or it might be worse for her. But, I’m, I’m really scared that he is just saying that, I mean what if they don’t let her out? What if they kill her? But there’s no one here to talk to about it and I didn’t think you’d care, I didn’t know what to do,” Hailey explained.

“Well I’m here now, so quit your whimpering and let’s find that building so I can break her out,” Kevin declared re-holstering his weapon.

“We’re just going to storm inside sir,” Hailey asked.

Kevin cuffed her across the head, “shut up, I’m thinking. You just point me to the building and I’ll make all the decisions. God, abandoning your own mother to save your sorry skin. I shouldn’t have sent you to that boarding school like your mother wanted. I should have disciplined you properly myself. Maybe you wouldn’t be such a sniveling coward.” Kevin dragged her along, his hand was wrapped painfully tight around her arm; he still didn’t trust that she wouldn’t run. 

“Why aren’t we going back to the metro,” she asked as they headed further away from the festival.

He stopped again and glared at her, she cowed at the look.

“I told you I would do all the thinking, do you understand me? Or do I have to make you understand me? God, how stupid are you?”

“Sorry Sir,” she said.

They continued on. 

Hailey’s heart beat faster as she noticed Byerly Vorrutyer and a young-ish woman heading towards them. She was dressed like some of the other contortionists from the “Freak Show” and was giggling at something Byerly presumably said. Perhaps he’d be smart and keep walking like that other fellow had a few minutes ago. But as Byerly neared them he didn’t veer away but towards them.

“Hello Hailey, who is your friend,” By asked laconically looking her over and then studying Kevin. He had deliberately stopped between them and their destination, a non-descript dark blue ground car. Byerly was a head shorter than Kevin at least and had none of the muscle mass. 

“My mother’s second husband,” Hailey offered.

“Well just fucking tell him my life story why don’t you,” Kevin declared scowling at her then turning to Byerly and straightening himself out so he loomed over the other man even more impressively, “just keep walking little boy, this is family business.”

Byerly smiled tightly, he turned and kissed the young woman who was hanging on his arms fully on the lips before speaking to her. “Desdemona, I am so glad you deigned to provide me with company the other night. While you’re group is still in town please feel free to visit me again. I do apologize for not walking you all the way home but Hailey and I need to talk,” he explained, giving her a pat on the rump to send her on her way.

Desdemona smiled quizzically at Byerly but did not argue with him. Perhaps she would be glad to be away from what was likely to be a very violent situation, Hailey decided. She went on her way, glancing back at them until she entered past the wooden barricades that were set up for the festival. 

“It’s true Byerly, this is a family matter so you should probably just run along. Kevin benches over 300lbs on a bad day. It wouldn’t even be a fight,” Hailey added. Really things would be better if he just called the guard Hailey thought. Kevin was going to wreck him. 

She rubbed her left side with her left and then flicked her eyes meaningfully to Kevin’s own shoulder holster, hoping that meant something to Byerly and she didn’t just look like an idiot. 

Byerly did nothing obvious. Though he did nod, “I see well, I’m sorry to have disrupted your plans,” he stepped out of the way.

“Damn right you little-“ Kevin had started pulling Hailey forward and then had suddenly flung her and roared. She landed in the grass and turned around to see him wrestling with Byerly. The bout was short with Kevin throwing By to the ground and pulling out his nerve disruptor.

“Don’t! The plasma discharge will get picked up by Imperial Guard scanners of the area and they’ll be able to pinpoint your location,” Hailey shouted from her position on the ground.

Kevin paused, His finger needed to move less than an inch for him to end By’s life.

“You should not have done that,” Kevin declared.

“I realize that in retrospect,” By wheezed, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

“Maybe I shouldn’t shoot him, but what if I just bash his head in a couple times with a rock,” Kevin wondered aloud.

“That would take time, first you’d have to find a good rock for that. Not one of those shabby prole rocks either. I would want my life to end with something bedazzling. Maybe something with pyrite in it. Fool’s gold has always suited me, that or maybe a giant emerald. I really won’t settle for anything less,” Byerly stated.

“I could snap his neck too,” Kevin said, he did not enjoy smartass responses.

“He works for Imperial Security, I think he could help you get inside to find Chel. But only if he’s alive,” Hailey pointed out. 

Byerly shrugged, “so that’s what this is about,” he asked.

“You think you can get me in to find my wife,” Kevin demanded.

“I could certainly get you in the building, my security clearance is high enough for that,” Byerly promised.

“Do you know what I will do to you if you’re lying to me,” Kevin asked.

“Something horrible,” Byerly asked.

“I’ll start by ripping off the finger nails and I’ll work my way up to peeling off skin. It really hurts if you salt the area afterwards,” Kevin promised.

Byerly smiled, his face slightly green.

“Get up,” Kevin ordered.

Byerly and Hailey rose slowly.

“Which one is your car,” Kevin asked.

By led them over to a handsome vehicle which Kevin inspected. He then made the two of them empty their pockets and did a thorough search to make sure neither was hiding anything. Byerly heroically resisted an urge to make a joke at this juncture.

“There’s no way to get out of the trunk is there,” Kevin asked.

By raised an eyebrow, “I haven’t tried. I’m not interested in those sorts of games.”

“Hm, which hand is your dominant one,” Kevin asked.

“My right,” By admitted reluctantly

“Good,” Kevin reached over and caught Byerly’s right hand. In one swift motion Kevin broke By’s fingers. It was a sickening crack and Byerly screamed.

“Stop it,” Hailey cried out. Hailey wondered how no one had come out to see what was going on. Hadn’t Desdemona at least reported that something was wrong?

“That was because I don’t like your attitude and so you know I’m serious,” Kevin said looking down at Byerly.

Then Kevin looked over at her, “now the two of you are going to get into that trunk because I am not going to worry about either of you trying to pull any stunts while I am driving. You will remain back there quietly until we reach ImpSec. Then I will let you out and you will lead me down to find my wife. If you make a lot of noise I will shoot you. If you try to warn anybody about my plans I will shoot you. If there is a trap down there I swear on all that is holy I will make you regret the day you were born.”

With little fanfare he shoved both of them in the trunk and shut the hatch. It was very dark but spacious back there. The car started and they began to move.

“Byerly, are you alright,” Hailey asked.

Byerly was breathing rapidly, “I have seen much better days. Here, reach down by my foot, that’s a good girl, and open up that bottle of wine for me.”

“Byerly this is serious, we’re going to die,” Hailey exclaimed.

“Some asshole just broke my fingers and I would like to take five minutes to self medicate before we plan some grand escape, alright,” Byerly stated, not quite hysterical.

Hailey uncorked the bottle and handed it to him. Her vision adjusting slowly to the darkness. He drank for a while and then lay quietly.

“So? Should I ask what prompted this visit from your mother’s second husband or should we start with why he thinks she’s hiding out at ImpSec,” Byerly asked.

“Kevin seems to think that Chel sent him a letter asking for him to find her here on Barrayar. He insisted that I help him find her or he was going to start shooting people. I remember Ivan and Simon were talking about how ImpSec had installed scanners in the elevators at HQ some years ago. Simon mentioned that it was some poor sod’s job to watch the elevators all day and make sure that no one brought loaded plasma weapons up into ImpSec HQ. He said they could stop the elevators if they wanted to. So I thought I could just lead Kevin unto one and at least then ImpSec could send in a SWAT team to deal with him,” Hailey explained.

“Oh, well that is intelligent, I suppose. Although I would imagine that if you were still with him then you’d probably end up dead too,” By noted.

“Well, I figured I wasn’t going to live through this anyway,” Hailey admitted.

“Ah,” By considered this in silence for a time.

“Would you like some wine too? I don't wish to be a terrible host. This being my car and all,” By noted.

“No. I’m alright,” Hailey said.

“Hm,” By commented.

“You know that was really stupid of you, why did you try to jump him like that,” Hailey asked.

“I have bouts of severe gas and chivalry every now and again. In retrospect I probably should have walked by and called the local guard. But Kevin would have probably left with you by and I wouldn’t have been much help in finding you then,” By noted.

 

“You know I swear Kevin is taking every scenic detour possible,” Byerly complained sometime later.

“He’s not the brightest star in the sky,” Hailey admitted.

“So how did he meet your mother,” By asked conversationally. Because why not, they were trapped in the trunk of a car with a psychopath at the wheel. 

“We went to Pennmen because Amnesty wanted her to take a few months break after Giansu. They were worried she’d burn out. Chel was working with the veterans association there; helping out when she met Kevin. And what do you expect? He was Special Forces in their war on Frost II. They gave him a medal of honor before being captured and tortured by the local radical regime. I suppose Chel thought he offered an alternate ending to Enrico’s story. He was supposed to be a stand in for her image of a freedom fighter who’d survived torture and the war but was damaged. She thought she could fix him. I think she hoped it would make up for losing Enrico. At least I figure that’s the romantic version of it. She couldn't help him though, he has such an explosive temper. Even she got tired of the abuse after a while,” Hailey philosophized.

“So he was hitting the both of you,” Byerly asked quietly, “when did that start? Why would Chel have put up with that?”

“I don’t know, even when they were dating he would lose his temper. His prefrontal cortex is messed up if you ever do a brain image. He’s not good with forethought or considering consequences and when he gets riled up he doesn’t calm down easily. Initially there was some hope that over time he would heal, but it’s probably just scar tissue up there. Brain damaged, you know? Chel put up with him for a long time despite everything and then we left abruptly. She came to pick me up at boarding school one day with bruises all over her face. The administrators wanted to call a doctor or the police but she shouldered past them, we had tickets to the shuttleport and a jumpship that night.” “Ivan is kind of an idiot, but I think you’ll have better luck with him,” By stated.

They let a brief silence in before Hailey spoke up again.

“You don’t think we’ll get lucky and one of the snipers on the roof will pick him off do you,” Hailey asked.

“Is Kevin a galactically renowned criminal,” By asked.

“No, he’s currently a police officer,” Hailey stated.

“Figures,” By said taking another swig of wine.

“In that case no, we’re probably going to have to handle this ourselves,” By said.

“Oh,” Hailey said.

“Don’t worry, I think you’re original plan is a good one. Let’s go with that,” By said as the car finally parked. Heavy footsteps ground on the cement pavement of the parking garage and Kevin opened the trunk. Hailey and By climbed out only to notice a uniformed male parking his own car had stopped to stare at them. By waved his non-mangled hand, “it’s a family custom!”

Hailey did not understand but it seemed to be enough for the man who parked his car and walked off.

“Alright, you know the rules, if you do anthing and I mean anything to piss me off I will end you and anyone else in my way, got it,” Kevin demanded.

“Yes sir,” By mock saluted.

By walked in front while Kevin put an arm around Hailey and kept her close to him. They walked past some uniformed guards patrolling ImpSec who didn’t stop them. They went in a side door and over to a Lieutenant sitting at a desk.

The man looked up and seemed to recognize Byerly, “the bar is one block down Vorrutyer.”

By smiled and pulled something out of his pocket which he flashed to the Lieutenant. The man's eyes widened in shock.

“But- is that real? How did you – how?”

By raised a good finger to his lips in a “shushing” motion.

“Well don’t give my secret away to the whole city Vortushpula. Just let me use the elevators, I’ve got some stuff I need to look into in the archives,” By explained.

Vortushpula saluted him and pointed him to the correct elevators.

“They’re with me as well. It’s State Business,” By explained when Vortushpula tried to stop Kevin and Hailey from following. Vortashpula had no idea how close to death he came with that attempt.

The three of them got unto an elevator by themselves and Byerly pushed the button for the bottom-most floor.

“The security cells for special ImpSec prisoners is down with the Archives,” By noted.

“It better be,” Kevin stated.

The elevator started to go, then stopped. All power went out.

“What the fuck did you do,” Kevin raged.

“Kevin stop,” Hailey cried grabbing his arm as Kevin wrapped his hands around By’s throat. Kevin shoved her back against the wall, hard. 

Suddenly the lights came back on and the elevator started to move again. Kevin released By’s throat and By slid down the wall to a sitting position.

“It was a power flux, just a little power flux. It happens because ImpSec is on a generator. The former ImpSec chief was so paranoid about someone cutting power to the building and then breaking in, or worse trapping everyone inside, that the place has it's own generator,” By explained.

“Why is the elevator going up,” Kevin demanded.

“It probably also has to do with the power flux. You just have to hit the button again. It’s the bottom most one,” By instructed.

Kevin jabbed it once, then several more time as if that would help. The lights in the room were starting to move, Hailey decided.

“Hailey come sit by me before you fall,” By said looking her over. 

She half sat half collapsed next to By who looked glassy eyed. 

“Your pupils are really dilated,” Hailey noted. It seemed really hard to think straight now much less talk. Her tongue felt heavy. Her head felt heavy. 

By put an arm around her and whispered in her ear, “just relax, everything is going to be fine. This will be the least violent hostage negotiation you’ve ever seen.”

“What – what the hell is happening,” Kevin demanded. He grabbed the wall for support and took deep gasping breaths.

“We’re going down. But the prison cells are so far underground that oxygen molecules in your blood are expanding. Don’t worry the feeling will pass,” By promised.

“That’s not –“ Hailey began to protest when By put a hand over her mouth.

“When does it pass,” Kevin demanded.

“Very soon, just start counting backwards from about sixty,” By estimated.

It didn’t take that long. Kevin smashed his head against the side of the elevator and the floor about forty three seconds after By made that statement. By was very pleased with the sounds his head made when they made contact with both structures. Hailey’s head lay on By's shoulder, she was unconscious now too. The poor kid weighed a lot less than either man so she hadn’t needed much of the sleeping gas to put her down.

The doors opened then and ImpSec men in gas masks appeared. One offered a mask to By who needed help putting it on.

“That fellow needs to go down to the prisoner holding cells ASAP he is extremely dangerous. The girl should be put in the hospital wing,” By instructed.

 

Hailey awoke in a sterile hospital bed and pushed the blanket back. It was much too hot under there, she decided. Ivan was sitting in a chair at the end of her hospital bed and was talking to someone in the next bed over. 

“Da,” she asked in confusion.

Ivan looked over at her and got up, “hey, how are you feeling,” he asked walking over to her.

Hailey considered this, “Nauseous.”

Ivan barely made it to her in time with the emesis basin before the black liquid came up. He patted her back and handed her a wet washcloth. She wiped her face with it.

“That is one of the negative side-effects of the sleeping gas,” By noted from the other bed.

“But how did that happen,” Hailey asked in confusion.

“Well you were right that there is a guard here that watches the elevators and he can stop them at will when he finds an unauthorized weapon on someone. But ImpSec doesn’t send in a commando team every time a lone whack-job shows up with a gun. It’s time consuming and messy, especially if the fellow has hostages. So the elevators are equipped to release aerosolized sleeping gas to put everyone in the elevator down. Then ImpSec can come in and leisurely separate friend from foe,” By explained.

“Well why didn’t you mention that in the trunk,” Hailey demanded.

“The trunk,” Ivan asked.

“It’s not important,” By waved the detail away, “I just thought it would add to the realism. If you knew we were going to be fine would you have behaved differently? Kevin was so trigger happy I didn’t want to risk it. Besides I told the bosses that it was mostly your idea. Who knows they might even give you a medal,” By said.

“For what,” Hailey asked.

“For stopping a crazed psychopath from shooting up half of Vorbarra Sultana while looking for his wife,” By explained.

“But I- I mean I was just – I don’t think it counts. He is my relative so I feel partially responsible for all of this. How are your hands,” Hailey asked.

By snorted, “you’re being ridiculous and my hands are fine. Nothing that a little medication and alcohol won’t fix.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to mix those,” Ivan advised.

“Who are you, my mother,” By demanded.

Ivan shook his head but turned back to Hailey, “you and I are going home and doing something safe and with a lot of armed guards.”

“Oh, I don’t think you have to worry about her. She’s awfully cunning and dare I say downright Mil-“ By began.

“No! No absolutely not! You may not say it,” Ivan interrupted emphatically. He picked Hailey up in his arms and walked out of the hospital room with her.


	13. Finale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin and Chel get sentenced. Ivan celebrates his birthday with family

Kevin was pacing his tiny cell. Kevin had been doing this for what seemed like hours. They’d tried to interrogate him earlier. They’d been all set to use the hypospray when he’d demanded they put an allergy patch on him first. The looks on their faces when they found the bright red rash had been priceless. One of the bastards, Kevin couldn’t remember his name, he couldn’t remember any of their names, but one of them had the nerve to suggest they try to fast penta him anyway. That idea had been dismissed; Kevin had seen to that. But after that they’d tried to ask him questions without the drug. They tried to make him feel stupid and to trick him into getting mad and revealing more than he should. The joke was on them though, he had nothing to hide. He was an officer on his own planet, devoted to upholding justice and peace there. He was only on this scummy planet to find his wife, and despite his patient demands of his step daughter he had gotten nothing from her. Ok, he admitted to himself, maybe he had been less than patient with her and her little friend. But they had drugged him and now he was in a prison cell being interrogated and no one seemed to see the injustice of it. Worse, he still didn’t know where Chel was. His wife could be just one cell over and he’d never be able to tell and no one would say anything to him. He just wanted some answers.

The cell opened, two little clowns entered and told him he was being moved to an interrogation room. They led him off after clapping cuffs on him. They sat him down in a metallic, uncomfortable chair with no cushioning. They removed the restraints from behind his back and instead attached them to the large heavy table in front of him. This limited any of his chances for mobility. Perhaps they knew a little something about his Special Forces training after all, he decided. The guards who brought him in stood at attention near the door he had just entered through. His newest interrogators entered from the opposite door. He looked up into the face of his last interrogator, Captain Nobody-Cares. Kevin had come up with that amusing epithet himself. Then he noticed the other man in similar dress greens who had just entered the room.

Kevin smiled bitterly, “So the aristocratic fat cat shows up when everything is safe? Typical of the upper ranks. Well the least you can do is tell me where my wife is.”

Captain Nobody-Cares began to speak.

“SHUT UP, I want him to look me in the eye like the man I know he isn’t and tell me where my wife is. She didn’t want to stay with you did she?”

Captain Vorpatril looked Kevin over. Kevin watched the man try to act like he was bored as could be. Kevin didn’t buy it for a second.

Then Captain Vorpatril spoke, “she isn’t here anymore. I don’t know where she went. But she left of her own accord. This leaves us with the question of why she summoned you here. Perhaps you were meant as the sacrificial rear guard to cover for her?”

“Bullshit! Hailey told me that same lie at first too. She backtracked real quick when I told her I wasn’t messing around.”

“And what did Mademoiselle Mujica tell you after you asked again,” Captain Nobody-Cares asked.

“She told me that Chel was being kept right here within ImpSec headquarters in one of your little cells,” Kevin stated triumphantly, “and she would have led me to my wife if that asshole friend of yours hadn’t tricked me and gotten in the way.”

“That ‘asshole’ as you call him is one of Imperial Security’s agents. It has also been well documented that you violently assaulted him,” Ivan noted, “which just adds another nail in your coffin.”

“But why did you show up when you did,” Captain Nobody-Cares interrupted.

“I told you before, I’m telling you now, and I will keep telling you until you get it through your thick skull. My wife, the woman I am married to, who I love very much, sent me a letter a few weeks ago asking to reconcile. She said she had business here on Barrayar so I came. She sent me two addresses, hers and Vorpatril’s. I went to hers to find the place empty. So I went to find Vorpatril’s,” Kevin explained turning to look Vorpatril in the eye before continuing, “I couldn’t get access to you because someone is always babysitting you. Then I saw Hailey. In her letter Chel swore she was done with that kid and she was getting smart and dumping the little bitch with you. I would have had Chel, you’d be stuck with the brat, things could have been great but you fucked everything up!”

“So there was no back up plan if Madame Mujica didn’t show or if she had to go into hiding,” Captain Nobody-Cares asked.

“Fuck you! If there had been a plan I wouldn’t be here. No, Chel didn’t say anything to me about an alternate plan. She didn’t leave me a message. She didn’t try to contact me again after sending me that letter. But I know it was her because the tech nerds could trace it back to one of her credit chits. I’m not stupid,” Kevin declared.

“And did you or did you not run into a plain clothes officer before your altercation with Mademoiselle Hailey Mujica,” Captain Nobody-Cares interrupted again.

“One guy was watching Hailey. I saw him before he saw me. I got him alone. I can’t remember what I told him but it was enough. I just needed a few seconds. I was in Special Forces you know. Boy, could I get things done before, if you thought I was good now, you should have seen me before I got caught by the Vingo Brigade. The fight was short. I had a disruptor, he had a dinky stunner and well, I cleaned up fast enough. I used to have to do that back in SF too at our ambush sites. We would wait for the security patrol to come by, wipe those suckers out, get rid of the bodies, then wait for the main contingent. You screw up, you’re dead. So I take my work seriously. But you wouldn’t know anything about that would you Vorpatril? Naw you let little girls handle your fights for you.”

“It’s too bad your knee jerk reaction was to pick a fight with a little girl. Maybe if you had some actual balls like you keep talking about you’d have come to find me first,” Ivan shouted, his cool demeanor slipping.

Captain Nobody-Cares looked downright shocked at Vorpatril’s rage.

“Oh, believe me, I wanted to but then Hailey talked me out of it. She talked me into going to find my wife first. Even she didn’t think you could handle it,” Kevin spat back, enjoying this. 

“Yeah, well you can kiss that plan goodbye, because now that you’ve admitted to murdering an ImpSec field agent you will never get out of here. Welcome to the Barrayaran prison system,” Ivan stated icily.

Kevin surprised both officers by laughing.

“You know Hailey said that too the first time she called the police on me. Her mother and I had a bit of an argument and well I lost my temper. You know women can be mouthy, but I digress. Point is I got in a little trouble, but nobody and I mean nobody messes with me and gets away with it. I’m a war hero dammnit and I’ve got the medals to prove it. So they let me go. Just like they’re going to let me go now, it’s just a matter of time,” Kevin prophesied.

Ivan was about to say something else when Captain Nobody-Cares stepped in, “I believe I should handle the rest of this interrogation Captain, perhaps you should step outside.” Vorpatril paused for a moment, tense in his limbs. Kevin wondered if Vorpatril might argue back. But the moment passed and instead Vorpatril chickened out, he said something low to the other officer then stepped out.

 

Ivan was cursing and swearing under his breath as he stepped out of the interrogation room leaving the psychopath with the other officer. He told himself he didn’t want anything else to do with Kevin or his brand of crazy. Ivan told himself he was lucky that this wasn’t his job and he would just let ImpSec do its thing.

He immediately bumped into his mother just exiting another room. It was a room that held a vidscreen that showed images of the interrogation room Ivan had just stepped out of. No need to ask what she’s doing here then, eh, Ivan thought.

“I had never guessed you to be so impatient to get information that you would antagonize someone,” Lady Alys noted.

“I was just checking in to see if I could help in case of issues. You know, thought I was supposed to be here,” Ivan said hastily. 

So maybe Ivan had wanted to shoot the guy in the face with a plasma arc. That was probably the logical response of anyone who heard some tank of a man casually talking about beating a little kid and murdering an officer. No need to think he was acting out of the ordinary. And besides they were talking about his daughter. A man had the right to be upset if someone was hitting his daughter. So really he was just acting completely normally. 

“So what did you think,” Lady Alys asked.

Ivan shrugged, “he’s delusional if he thinks he’s ever getting out after confessing to homicide. War hero or not that doesn’t fly here and even if he did I would be waiting – uh, waiting to talk to someone to get the matter straightened out through the proper channels,” Ivan explained hastily.

No need to have his own mother wondering if he’d gone off the deep end on this, Ivan decided. No sir he was completely calm, collected and unremarkable. Not out to avenge some mistreatment, you can’t do that on a civilized planet, he reminded himself. 

“Well, you know, work to get to and all of that,” ivan said hastily, “have to go, I’m sure you’re busy too, see you tonight.”

 

Chel was at a benefit dinner to raise money for asteroid relief for the planet of Gelspa. Half the population had been wiped out and the other was choking to death from the thick smog the asteroid had sent up when it had crashed into the planet. She had just stepped off stage when a man in a white tuxedo came forward. He must be one of the servants, Chel decided.

“Madame Mujica,” he inquired politely.

“Yes? I was just speaking for half an hour. Can’t you get me some water,” Chel said irritably. She was always irritable these days. It was the pang of regret. She shouldn’t have sent that tightbeam to Kevin knowing that Hailey might get hurt. The letters that Hailey used to write to Chel had stopped coming. Chel regretted not responding to them. She thought now that Kevin must have come upon the girl. He was such a violent man and Hailey was so small that it must have been easy to get rid of her. Chel took some comfort in her suspicion that Ivan was probably dead too. She hadn’t heard it on the news, but he was not important enough to be mentioned across interplanetary news programs. Still, Chel’s heart ached and she wished she could fix things. She would have done things differently after her exile from Barrayar, Chel thought now. 

Silently the servant poured some water from a cooler and handed it to her. She drank it up thinking about how ridiculous it was that they had to throw a benefit dinner so people would donate money to help others.She shook her head, then abruptly stopped as the room spun. She fell forward and the man caught her and carried her off.

She awoke again in a dark dingy looking basement somewhere. Her head had been lying on a table. As she sat up and stared around the room she noted that they hadn’t tied her hands to anything. She was free to move. One man sat across from her while two stood at the door. The room was cold and she despite her clothing, Chel shivered. They were all white men from what she could tell though she still wasn’t sure what government or organization they must represent.

“Who are you,” she demanded.

“I will be asking the questions Madame Mujica, do you have an allergy to fast penta?”

One of the men at the door came around to her with a medkit. She stood up abruptly but immediately the other man standing came around and held her down. “Please don’t struggle, Madame, I have no orders to hurt you,” the man in the chair stated patiently.

Recognizing that resistance was futile with them on guard she managed to relax back into the chair. The man slapped a patch on her and took it off. No reaction. A second later the cool hypospray hit her bare skin.

The interrogator started off simple, asking her name, her most recent address, the names of her former spouses.

“So you do know a Kevin Galdzicki,” the interrogator murmured, “did you invite him to Barrayar to meet you?”

“Yes,” Chel admitted, “I thought, I thought it would be such beautiful poetic justice.”

“Did you purposely in your letter to Mr Galdzicki write about needing him to save you from the Barrayaran empire?”

“I did need saving! But no one is ever around! Those Barrayaran animals shouldn’t have taken my daughter! They shouldn’t have humiliated me!”

“But you did not need saving from the dungeons of Imperial Security did you? Did you lie to him about being on planet,” the interrogator continued.

“I did, I told him where to find Ivan instead, that rat of a man who stole my daughter all the while smiling at me as if everything was alright. They deserved each other, he and Kevin were both human garbage. You know I spent two years with Kevin? I was going to fix him. I wanted to make him human again. But it was too much even for me. There was nobody who was going to put him back together, so I left,” Chel explained. 

She would have gone on except the interrogator interrupted.

“Madame Mujica, did you lie in your letter to your second husband Kevin Galdzicki as part of an attempt to murder Captain Ivan Vorpatril,” the interrogator asked. “I just told you they were human garbage. I wanted them both dead,” and then Chel began to cry, “but oh, my baby… I shouldn’t have done it at the expense of Hailey. I had promised Enrico I would look after her. I didn’t, and I can only hope to atone for my sins.”

“Funny,” the interrogator muttered quietly, he did not smile or laugh, before continuing. 

“On Vivaria, after your first husband turned you out did you or did you not head to the local chapter of the People’s party in order to inform them of his whereabouts,” the interrogator asked.

“Of course not!”

“Did you or did you not inform the People’s party about the local hideouts of the Freedom party,” the interrogator asked.

This time Chel wavered, “I just – I wanted to punish him a little for what he did to me. I never knew that it would eventually lead to his arrest!”  
The interrogator looked at her calmly until she composed herself.

“Did they let you see him before his death because you helped catch him,” the interrogator asked.

“It wasn’t how it was meant to be,” Chel shouted desperately, “I wanted to scare him a little, show him that he needed me. But they caught his younger cousin at one of the old hideouts. I swear I had thought that last one was being abandoned because it was gaining too much notoriety in the community. I figured no one would be there. But one thing led to another and everything was out of hand in those days. I didn’t mean for him to get caught because of my actions,” Chel lamented. 

“So you were allowed to see your husband one last time when hundreds of thousands were not because you helped put him in front of that firing squad? The People’s party was rewarding you for your good deed, weren’t they,” the interrogator asked.

Chel was sobbing now, “yes,” she admitted.

The interrogator nodded.

 

Ivan was awakened by his commconsole. Bleary eyed he looked over to see that it was Gregor who was calling. He stumbled over to accept the message. “Gregor, s’like five in the morning,” Ivan complained.

“I do apologize Ivan, but I wanted to catch you before you went out this morning. I just received confirmation that Kevin Galdzicki has been found guilty of murdering an Imperial Security operative, of torturing a second, of kidnapping and physically assaulting a minor, and attempted homicide against you. He will be put to death.” “Oh,” Ivan nodded, “well that’s… I can’t say that’s surprising.”

“Our Barrayaran covert ops agents also caught up and interrogated Chel Mujica. She admitted to purposely misleading Galdzicki in an attempt to kill you and ah, avenge her honor as she claimed. I have the tapes should you be interested in a listen. They are certainly something….”

Ivan shook his head, he wanted nothing more to do with that woman and wanted her nowhere near their daughter. Gregor studied Ivan then and taped his fingers thoughtfully on his commconsole desk.

“There is more,” Gregor hesitantly continued, “when Galdzicki admitted that Chel had sent him the letter and ImpSec traced the chit used back to her I… ordered the release of the vids where she accused you of rape and later recanted. I had also given orders for a ground team to formally interrogate her for the role she played in this fiasco. You know I don’t like it when people try to harm my subjects.”

Ivan looked Gregor over and wondered why he was being told this.

“So is she being tried for her crimes in the Eba quadrant,” Ivan asked. Ivan had thought that Gregor might have wanted to try her personally in Vorbarra court. He was very touchy about people messing with his vassals.

“Initially I had thought to require that she return here to stand trial. She had ah, if I may borrow Cordelia’s phrasing, sinned against you, and should therefore be forced to make proper restitution to you in my court. But then I was informed, and I swear, my word as Vorbarra that I did not order this or suggest it to anyone, I was informed that she had killed herself while they were transporting her back here.”

Gregor looked extremely apologetic, Ivan decided. 

“Well, how,” Ivan asked in confusion. He didn’t really want to know how but he didn’t know what else to say. Ivan didn’t want anyone dead per se, though he was not a fan of Chel. But, but what was he supposed to tell Hailey? Ivan hadn’t mentioned that Chel had undeniably sent a letter that goaded Kevin into coming to Barrayar to the kid. Hailey had informed him only yesterday that she was sure Chel would not have sent that letter. Hailey was sure it was an old political rival or perhaps the security forces from another planet where Chel had pissed off the ruler. Ivan didn’t have the heart or the courage to tell her the truth about her mother. But how could you tell a kid that her mother had tried to kill her, or at least accepted that she would be collateral damage? So Ivan had let it go. 

Gregor shook his head, “she requested a razor ostensibly for leg stubble. Why the man in charge of her didn’t merely offer her a depillating solution instead I will never know but she sliced her wrists open in the bath and bled out. Apparently her arms were marked with cuts. I understand it was a habit of hers. Since there is no law about cryo-reviving prisoners who commit suicide the Admiral of the ship decide to forgo any such procedures. I can neither condemn nor praise him for this choice.” “Well, what am I supposed to tell Hailey,” Ivan asked aloud. Ivan was angry at Chel. How could he not be when she’d thrown her only child under the groundcar then she took the easy way out? She left everyone else to deal with the consequences of her actions. Now Ivan had to figure out how to break the news to his daughter. He knew she was still secretly hoping her mother would come back. Or at least respond to one of her damn letters. Hailey had stopped them for a little while after Kevin’s attack but she’d sent two out last week. Ivan had seen them. He felt like a voyeur spying on his daughter’s private letters to her mother. But if Hailey and Chel had a long-distance blow up well he was the one stuck in the same apartment with Hailey if she decided to do anything crazy as a result. Ivan reserved the right to at least know why Hailey was building angry robots. 

Worst of all it was Ivan’s birthday. He shouldn’t have to be delivering bad news to people during the one day of the year when people were required to be nice to him, or at least less rude.

Gregor gave him a look of sympathy, “I think you are doing her a disservice by not telling her some of the truth… I know how hard it can be to suddenly discover unsavory truths about one’s relatives. If you think I can help I would be happy to talk to her.”

Ivan’s first instinct was to leap at that offer of help. But he considered what his mother and Simon would think. Ivan shook his head, “I should probably talk to m’mother about what to do first, her being more socially sensitive about these things and all.”

Tomorrow, he added silently. Chel had likely marred enough days for Hailey, she didn’t need to be ruining Ivan’s birthday for Hailey. Who am I kidding, I’m doing it for myself, Ivan admitted. Still, he decided it would be best to talk to his mother first and he would talk to Hailey when he was good and ready, tomorrow. 

Gregor nodded slightly, “as you wish Ivan.”

They said their goodbyes until the party tonight and Ivan got up to go wake Hailey. He made sure she ate something and had tea before they left. Usually before these remembrance ceremonies people were supposed to fast. But Hailey had sprouted up three inches in the past month and had suffered two fainting episodes in that time as well. The pediatrician assured Ivan and his anxious mother that it was only transient orthostatic hypotension and that they if they pushed fluids and a higher salt intake Hailey would be fine. Ivan figured that if feeding the kid meant preventing another fainting episode and his mother’s subsequent reaction then breaking certain rules was fine. 

They drove over in near silence. Neither of them were morning people and Hailey looked ready to go back to bed. Ivan parked the car near another car owned by the municipal guard. They got out and the guardsmen greeted Ivan. Hailey stood a distance away.

“It’s alright you know, we don’t really set the hair on fire until it’s safely off the person’s head,” he promised his daughter before putting an arm around her to draw her into a partial hug.

Sometimes it was really hard to tell what the kid would find funny and what would upset her, Ivan thought. Ivan had teased her about how since she’d grown he would have to buy her a whole new wardrobe. To his horror she had looked extremely ashamed and apologized profusely about all the money he was spending on her. He imagined then, that this must have been a response to an old guilt inducing routine that Chel had used to pull. So he tried to be careful with his words around Hailey; they were still getting to know each other. Ivan would try to remember to tell Hailey that he loved her at least once a day; because he figured that she hadn’t been told that very much when she was growing up with Chel. He hoped that helped.

Ivan looked up to see the familiar, formal black groundcar pull up and Christos help Lady Alys out of the car before allowing Illyan out afterwards. Christos then came forwards with a bundle from which he drew out a tripod. After starting a small fire in it he moved away. Lady Alys stepped over to hug Ivan and then Hailey.

“Happy birthday dear,” Lady Alys said looking at Ivan.

“Happy birthday, Just turned thirty-four have you Ivan,” Simon noted.

“Yes, sir,” Ivan said.

“Is this the first memorial service you’ve seen, Hailey,” Lady Alys asked.

“I have seen dozens, and each culture is different. In the Chinese cultures we used to burn paper money and replicas of items so the spirits would have them in the spirit world. I don’t – I was still confused about why you burn hair,” Hailey admitted uneasily looking to Ivan to see if the question was rude. 

Lady Alys considered the question, “Hair is an extension of ourselves and since it grows forth from the head, the seat of thought in the individual, it is also meant to signify that our thoughts are with the deceased. In burning hair we’re paying our respects to the individual by offering him a bit of our thoughts and ourselves to him.”

Hailey nodded slightly and slipped back into silence. Ivan knew her class had briefly talked about the war of Vordarian’s Pretendership. He had tried to explain some of it to her and she had gotten quiet. He didn’t really know what that meant. Sometimes she did that and Ivan couldn’t help wondering what atrocities she was remembering or thinking about. Hailey still carried around a lot inside of her and it took its toll. But she wasn’t ready to share it with him yet, no matter how much he wanted to help ease that burden. Sometimes he wished he could just fast penta the kid so they could just sit down and just talk things out. But his mother would give him stern looks and tell him to just give Hailey some time. 

The ceremony went on with Lady Alys and Ivan clipping off hair. Hailey diffidently allowed Lady Alys to cut off some of her hair as well. Lady Alys briefly summarized the events leading up to Padma’s death, then lapsed into silence.

She shook her head, “I had thought to turn this task over to you when you finally married. But not only are you not, you now have a daughter to look after.” From the look she gave Ivan he wanted to protest that it was not his fault. It wasn’t like he’d purposely had a child just so he could get out of coordinating the yearly memorial service for his father. 

His mother continued, “I had thought I owed it to Padma to carry these memorials out. I had even hoped when I was young and new to motherhood that it would give Ivan a sense of closeness with his father. Eventually it had just become routine and I didn’t know that I could stop it. It’s hard initially to say goodbye to someone you love but there has to be a point when you can finally let go. You’re not forgetting your loved one, but you’re able to accept that there is more to life than funeral clothes and heartache. It will take time though. You have to be ready for that.”

Ivan and his mother locked eyes. She knows about Chel, Ivan realized. He prayed she said no more on the topic until later. Simon did not seem aware of this interchange and moved over to squeeze the hand of Lady Alys. Hailey didn’t seem to understand either. Her large brown eyes were fixed in a look of concern but she didn’t offer a comment. The flames had started to burn down and at Lady Alys gesture Christos returned to upend the the bronze bowl and tap out the ashes before returning the equipment to his bag. “Well, perhaps we should head back to my flat. I’m sure everyone is ready for something to eat,” Lady Alys stated.

They returned to Lady Alys’s home for breakfast. Christos brought the mail over.

“I have some mail, for Mademoiselle Hailey,” he noted offering the girl a package. Mail was regularly checked by ImpSec so whatever it was it was at least physically safe, Ivan thought. He sincerely hoped it wasn’t a last minute letter from Chel writing something horrible to her daughter.

Eyebrows were raised all around. Hailey pushed her plate back and opened it gingerly. She tipped it out to reveal a red envelope inside which she opened to show off several more red envelopes with Chinese characters written on each one. Inside the innermost one was a paper letter and a credit chit.

“Could I borrow a datapad,” Hailey asked.

Christos brought back Lady Alys pad.

“Some sort of secret message,” Illyan asked.

“It’s for Chinese New Year. Adults in the family give children money in red envelopes as a sign of good luck. Those are names on the front,” Hailey noted distractedly, she was glancing back and forth between the datapad and the paper letter. Was she deciphering some code, Ivan wondered. Illyan and Lady Alys were exchanging looks.

“I had thought- After the GongAn, the state police were sent in to ZhuAn province to quell the protests and open war had been declared in the streets… I mean Chel and I were gone by that point at least, the entire Amnesty chapter had been forced to evacuate off planet so we weren’t there for the massacres. But millions were killed in the state ordered carpet bombings of the province. I thought he was dead,” Hailey was speaking incoherently, seeming to be overwhelmed by the situation. “You thought who was dead,” Lady Alys asked.

“My third step-father Isa Khadeer. But he just sent this letter, not with his name of course, but his pseudonym and it doesn’t say much aside from that he’s alive and looking for a new homeland for the Uyghur minority population on XinAn,” Hailey explained. 

“Isa Khadeer, you mean the second in command of the Horiya Uyghur separatist group,” Illyan asked.

Hailey looked surprised, “yes, I didn’t know he was famous.”

“Word of these things gets around to me… later rather than sooner these days,” Illyan admitted. He grimaced slightly, “I was of the understanding that he is on the XinAn government’s Most Wanted list. Doesn’t he have a tendency of shooting Admirals? I vaguely remember some story about his personal body count being in the hundreds” “Well yes, but he’s really nice when you meet him in person. Plus there was a war going on so really he was only shooting people in self defense,” Hailey pointed out. “Wonderful,” Illyan muttered.

“So he was just asking you how you were doing? How did he even get this address,” Ivan demanded.

Hailey shrugged, “part of his coded message was to ask me if I’ve been eating all of my vegetables. He has an odd sense of humor.”

The adults all quietly considered the long term implications of this third and final stepfather. Hailey was a sweet kid, but she really needed to not contact anyone on her mother’s side of the family, Ivan decided.

“Hey, you know Grand-Tante Cordelia was complaining about how difficult it was to get people to emigrate to Sergyar? Isa is complaining about how he doesn’t think their minority should stay on XinAn anymore. Maybe he could convince the elders to move them to Sergyar. Wouldn’t that be great? Isa could come visit Barrayar and his contingent could talk to Gregor about fealty oaths and things and you guys could meet him. Plus taking in refugees would really boost Barrayar’s Civility Cred in the eyes of other governments,” Hailey suggested suddenly.

Ivan almost spit out his coffee. Going from an off hand comment that Ivan’s aunt had made a month ago before departing for that benighted world then psychologically jumping to her stepfather’s problem left Ivan with a Miles sized headache. 

“Don’t you think that would be a great idea Ivan,” Hailey asked excitedly.

Ivan had sat his mother down last week and explained that he was Hailey’s parent and should really be the one making final comments on all of her activities. In retrospect he didn’t know why he had performed this suicidal gesture. He also didn’t know why Lady Alys had acquiesced so easily to her son’s demand. Ivan deeply regretted his life choices right now. 

“Yes, Ivan what do you think,” Lady Alys asked delicately sipping tea.

Ivan quickly stuffed a pastry in his mouth and wracked his brain for something intelligent to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how married I am to the idea that Chel had a hand in Enrico's death. I think it underlines her emotional instability and answers the question of why she got to see him at the end. But it also opens up other questions.


End file.
